Kyojin University
by OneLittleBlueJay
Summary: Eren is a freshman at the infamous Kyojin University, home of the Titans. While there, he joins the fencing team and discovers that the man behind the captain's mask and blade may turn out to be one of his worst nightmares. Also, what's with that biology major who keeps wanting to use him for her experiments? LevixEren, JeanxMarco, YmirxKrista, and more!
1. Welcome to Kyojin University!

Hey guys! I know it's been a while since I've been on ...but I'm back with a new fanfiction! I hope you guys enjoy it!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin...although if I did I would do so many things to Levi...

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**Chapter 1**

**Welcome to Kyojin University!**

_Hellooooooo incoming freshman! Welcome to Kyojin University, home of…you guessed it…the Titans! My name is Zoe Hanji, senior and biology major in the Shinganshina School of Arts and Sciences, and co-captain of our infamous Recon Fencing Team! I'll be the voice you hear throughout the next few days of orientation, so keep your eyes and ears open! Hopefully your move-in process will go as smoothly as possible—make yourselves at home, because this IS your new home for the next four years. Don't hesitate to try and find me if you have any questions, and remember…GOOOOOO TITANS!_

Eren Jaeger groaned as he dragged his heavy suitcase up yet another flight of stairs. To his dismay, the elevators were out of the question—too many students with moving carts and crying parents for him to bear with. Plus, it would take 15 minutes for an elevator to reach the lobby of Maria Hall. His ears will still ringing with the sound of the Zoe's voice blasting from the P.A. system—unfortunately for him, this was the third time he had heard the announcement today, thanks to a mix-up with his last name. The orientation leaders had made the same mistake everyone had made with his last name—placing him in the Q-Z group of students to move in instead of H-P.

Eren thought of his mother as he continued to struggle up the fifth flight of stairs. As much as he had resisted going to University—Eren was convinced that he was destined to fail college, and instead wanted to join the military—his mother would not have it. There had been many arguments that had ended in tears due to his mother's weakness because of her sickness, with Eren apologizing over and over again as he caressed her hand.

Once the accident had happened, Eren did not hesitate to fill out an application to Kyojin University—despite the fact that his father had gone there, and had tearfully informed his mother of his acceptance as she lay on that small bed in the hospital—

_I'm doing this for her, _Eren thought, biting his lip as he climbed the stairs, _I'm going to make you proud, mother._

He grunted, managing to lift the damned piece of luggage up the last stair, and opened the door to the 7th floor of Maria Hall.

What greeted him was utter chaos.

Since Eren was in the last group to move in, most of the other people on his floor had already made themselves at home. Loud music blasted from a room to his left, while on his right two guys were arguing over who would sleep on what side of the room. Students were running around the halls, throwing basketballs, kicking soccer balls—one guy was even skateboarding.

_Am I the last person to move in?_ Eren vaguely wondered as he passed a room where a group of guys were huddled playing a video game.

"Hey Eren!" one of the boys in the room called, to Eren's surprise. His eyes widened when he recognized one of his friends from high school, Connie Springer, rise from the group. Eren quickly set down his suitcase as Connie nearly knocked him over in a hug.

"Connie! I didn't know you went here!" Eren exclaimed as Connie released him, "What made you change your mind?" Like Eren, Connie had also expressed an interest in joining the military after high school.

"You know, something just changed in me," Connie said, scratching his head, still sporting the buzz-cut from when he was filling out his application for the military. "I was all ready to go and start training, but I met someone who convinced me to try school instead during the winter break of last year. So then I applied here, and somehow got in!"

"But what about second semester? Graduation? I never saw you," Eren replied, still trying to wrap his head around the information Connie was giving him.

"I was homeschooled for the last semester while I was still trying to figure things out…but I got my diploma, and that's all that matters, right?"

"Right!" exclaimed Eren, grinning, "So, who convinced you to change your m-!"

"EREN!"

Suddenly Eren was knocked to the ground when a mass of blonde hair collided with him. He blinked, stunned, and then began laughing as he recognized his closest friend, Armin Arlert.

"Hey Armin! You've been moved in for a while huh?" he asked while trying to push his friend off of him—Armin just held on tighter.

"Eren! I know it was only two weeks but I missed you so much! Oh you wouldn't believe some of the people that were at the program; they were huge! Half of them didn't even believe I was in college, much less an honor student!"

Eren just laughed harder, finally managing to disentangle himself from the mass of limbs and helping his friend up. Armin looked a little intimidated as he noticed that they were standing in front of the room with a group of muscular guys who were staring at them, and took a step back cautiously.

"Oh don't worry, Armin," Connie said, stifling a laugh when he saw Armin's eyes widen when he recognized the boy who had been gone the second half of senior year, "These guys are cool, right Jean?"

_Jean?, _thought Eren, _That's supposed to be my roommate…_

"Right," grumbled one of the guys, a tall one with light brown hair, looking anything but friendly. Eren flinched and Armin shrank back even more, doing his best to smile but ending up with a sort of grimace.

"Anyway…Armin, what floor are you on?" Eren asked, trying to break the awkwardness of the situation.

"I'm two floors below you! And guess what—Mikasa is right above you!" replied the blonde, "I wish you and I could have been roommates though….at least we're in the same dorm, right?"

"I wanted to live in Sina Hall," muttered the guy named Jean, before someone slapped the back of his head. "What gives, Marco!?"

"You need to stop complaining about your dorm assignment!" answered the one named Marco, a guy with dark hair and freckles, "Besides, it wouldn't work out with your major anyway."

Students were assigned to their dorms based on what major they were pursuing and, although it wasn't written, what they could afford. Most of the rich over-privileged students lived in Sina Hall…it was even said that some students were the sons and daughters of royalty, while others were celebrities being forced to go to school by their parents.

"Marco?" Armin suddenly piped up, stepping forward, "Marco Bodt?"

"That's me!" Marco answered, grinning, "You're my roommate, right?"

"Right! Nice to meet you!" Armin said back, beaming. However he blanched when Marco stood up to shake his hand—Marco was tall.

"Hey, you have nothing to worry about—Marco's a nice guy," said Connie, smirking. That seemed to calm Armin down a bit. Marco flashed the smaller boy a grin and Armin offered a shy smile back.

"Oh, Eren," said Connie, waving him over while Armin entered the room to talk to Marco, "You wanted to know who convinced me to go here, right?"

"Right…"

"Well, get this…he's our R.A.! His name is Reiner Braun!"

"Reiner Braun?" That name sounded familiar to Eren. If only he could remember why…

"Yeah! He's a junior, and I met him while registering for military school. He had already been through a year of training and convinced me why going to University would be a better choice." At this Connie leaned in so only Eren could hear him:

"Eren, you should have seen some of the people there. They looked as if they had nothing left. Some of them were ex-criminals, some were drug-dealers…we wouldn't have made it there, Eren."

At this the brunette nodded, what little doubt he had about going to University slowly ebbing away.

"Oi, Jeager! Didn't your friend mention someone named Mikasa earlier? Do you mean Mikasa Ackerman?" came Jean's voice from inside the room.

"Yeah…what of it?" asked Eren cautiously.

"I might have seen her earlier…black hair and wearing a red scarf, right?"

"Yes," replied Eren, still confused.

"Wow, you have one hot friend, roomie. I'd like to get to know her a bit, if you know what I-!"

_WHAM._

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?" shouted Jean a moment later, sporting a swollen cheek where Eren had run up and kicked him. Eren gritted his teeth and grabbed Jean by the front of his shirt, lifting him to his knees.

"Don't you EVER talk about her that way again," Eren growled, shaking him for emphasis, "If you get near her I won't hesitate to-!"

_SMACK._

And Eren was sent reeling into Marco, who was shouting at Jean to calm down. Connie had run over to restrain the taller boy with Marco while Armin had scampered over to Eren, checking for any injures.

_"What is going on here?" _boomed a voice from outside.

"Oh great, now we're in for it," mumbled Connie, still hanging on to Jean's arm.

In the doorway stood a tall, built man with short blonde hair sporting a furious expression on his face. At that moment Eren recognized him instantly.

_Reiner Braun!_

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Sorry that it ended in an awkward place...but I will update as soon as possible!

Until next time,

-Jay


	2. Our RA is a Wrestling Champion?

Hi everyone! I was overwhelmed by how quickly I gained followers and reviews for this fanfic, so I've decided to post the second chapter ahead of schedule! I hope you guys enjoy. :)

Special shout-out to **Swanfrost15, Narutopokefan, **and **Inkweaver12 **for being the first ones to review! I'm really glad you guys like it so far.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin, blah blah blahhhhh (can I at least have Levi)?

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**Chapter 2 **

**Our R.A. is a Wrestling Champion?**

_That's Reiner Braun!_ Eren thought, panic slowly settling in his stomach, _No wonder I recognized the name…_He quickly ran though the list of unsettling facts he knew about the junior in his head: Reiner Braun. 21. 6'1". 209 pounds. Hometown unknown. Graduate of Shingeki High School…

_INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING CHAMPION AT AGE 15._

Oh. So that's why he remembered him.

Gulp.

He felt Armin start to tremble next to him while the adrenaline rush slowly began ebbing into nothingness, leaving behind a painful throbbing in his gut. Even Jean looked uneasy as Marco halted from fussing over his face. The R.A. standing in the doorway looked back and forth between Eren and Jean, and sighed, placing a hand on his hip. Armin and Eren glanced at each other.

"Honestly, getting into fights already?" Reiner asked, exasperated, "The semester hasn't even started yet…"

He was met with an awkward silence.

_Maybe I'll live to see another day after all, _thought Eren. Meanwhile the R.A. had walked into the room, surveying the damage as well as the two freshmen on the floor. He clicked his tongue, sighing again.

"Guys, I don't want to remind you that you aren't in high school anymore," he continued, his expression stone cold. "You're adults. Act like it. Capish?"

Everyone in the room nodded vigorously, and to everyone's shock, Reiner let out a chuckle and grinned, dropping the serious act completely.

"Well that settles that!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together, "Now I'm Reiner Braun, by the way. I'm your R.A. I'll give you the formal speech later once everyone has moved in, but for now, would you mind telling me your names?"

Another awkward silence as the five boys gaped at the R.A.

"Alright then. Let's start with you!" he finished, pointing a finger at Armin, who blanched.

"Y-Yes! I'm Armin Arlert, uh, sir!" Armin cried, standing up quickly to extend a hand (and dropping Eren in the process), "It's very nice to meet you! I'm afraid I don't live on this floor, though…"

"No need for the 'sir,' Armin," Reiner said, shaking his hand, "You must be the honor student I've heard so much about right? This school needs more people like you."

"Um…I guess so," answered the blonde, flushing slightly.

"Great. Is that your stuff outside?" the taller male asked, gesturing to Eren's luggage that was still sitting outside of the room. At this Eren yelped, and rose to his feet gingerly.

"Uh, no, that stuff is mine!" he said nervously, "I still haven't moved in, you see…"

"Ah, so you must be Eren Jeager right? Or is it Thomas Wagner?"

"Uh…Eren."

"Well, then we have you get you moved in, don't we? I'll talk to the rest of you later. You, on the floor," Reiner said, pointing to Jean, "Make sure you get some ice for that sucker. We still have to get your pictures for your student ID cards. And these pictures stay on your card for all four years."

As Reiner led Eren out of the room to help him move in, Eren immediately imagined Jean having to carry around an ID card with a picture of his bruised face for his college career and stifled a giggle.

When the two arrived at Eren's room and unlocked the door, Eren gasped. The dorm rooms here were…_small._ Two beds, two desks, two dressers, and a single closet. A window with bars. This had to be some sort of prison room…

"I know it's not much, but once you're done with freshman year you get the opportunity to move to better dorms like Rose Hall," Reiner said, scratching the back of his head, "And it looks like your roommate already moved in, from what I can tell."

Clothes were strewn all over the floor, school supplies seemed to have been hastily dumped on the desk, and…were those dirty magazines? Apparently Jean was a pervert on top of being an asshole and a slob. Reiner saw the haunted expression on Eren's face, and laughed nervously.

"If you ever need anything, you can come find me," he offered, "Your roommate is Jean Kirstein, right? …Did he happen to be that other guy who was on the floor?"

Eren nodded guiltily.

"Ah…well, I'll have a word with you two later. I hope you can get settled as best as you can. We start orientation activities tonight! For now, I have to find that other student, Thomas Wagner…I'll catch you later, Eren!"

And with that, the International High School Wrestling Champion R.A. left, leaving Eren in a small dorm room feeling completely and utterly overwhelmed.

* * *

Once Eren had time to recollect his thoughts and unpack, he immediately began looking for Mikasa. He mentally slapped himself for forgetting to help her move in—he had driven her to the university in the morning, but had lost her amongst the mix-up of students while he tried to get his move-in time fixed.

Armin had mentioned that Mikasa lived one floor up (the floors were arranged so that boys lived on odd-numbered floors while girls lived on the even-numbered ones), so Eren took the stairs (not like he would be able to catch the elevator anyway), and opened the door to girls' floor.

Almost immediately he was tackled to the ground by a girl with black pigtails.

"We have our first guy visitor!" the girl shrieked, shaking a dazed Eren for emphasis, "He was brave enough to take the stairs, this one!" Eren could hear murmuring and hushed voices as he struggled to register what was going on. He vaguely realized that he was now surrounded by a group of girls, and he could feel the heat rising in his face. To his surprise, he heard rapid footsteps approaching the mass of people.

"Mina, get OFF of him!" came Mikasa's voice, to his relief. His adopted sister pushed through the crowd and tugged on Mina's arm. "That's my friend!"

Eren sighed in relief, feeling Mina's hands release his shirt as Mikasa knelt beside him. She glared at the rest of the girls around them and they all took a step back.

"So, Eren, were you able to move in alright?" she asked, as if they weren't having a conversation on the floor with about 20 girls watching them.

"Y-Yeah," Eren answered, seeing Mikasa's forced smile as he nodded. He didn't want to make the situation any more awkward than it already was. "I ran into a little bit of trouble with my roommate, though…we kind of got into a fight and-"

"Eren did he hurt you?" Mikasa demanded sharply, frowning, "I _told _you not to get into any fights! Who is he?"

"Um…his name is Jean," answered the brunette, "And it wasn't anything, really, he just sort of punched me in the gut-"

"If he lays a finger on you I will destroy him," Mikasa muttered menacingly, clenching her fists. She was about to go on until she was interrupted by squeals from the girls around them.

"You don't mean _the _Jean Kirstein, do you?" cried the girl named Mina. When Eren nodded she succumbed to more squealing as a blonde girl beside her gushed, "Oh my gosh, he used to be the star of the football team at my high school! Eren, you _must _introduce me to him sometime-!"

"Just what is all this noise for!?" shouted a female voice that sliced through the air. All of the girls quieted as a girl with blonde hair tied up in a bun made her way through to the center of the crowd. She had an icy gaze with piercing blue eyes.

"Krista," the girl said, focusing her glare on the wide-eyed blonde, "Do I need to remind you that we have quiet hours here? Or do I need to tell everyone your real name in order to make you understand?"

The girl named Krista shook her head, suddenly fearful. A tall girl with black hair tied in a ponytail put a comforting hand on her shoulder

"But Annie," said Mina beside her, "She was only freaking out because we found out from Eren here that _Jean Kirstein_ goes here, and—"

"Eren?" asked Annie. Mina nodded and pointed to the boy on the floor, who flinched when the piercing gaze landed on him.

"There are no boys allowed on this floor during quiet hours," she said curtly. Mikasa clenched her teeth, but didn't say a word.

"But Annie, classes haven't even started yet! Can't you give him a break? Besides, it's not even official dorm rules," scoffed the girl who had put her hand on Krista's shoulder. Annie turned to face her, saying, "They aren't the official dorm rules, Ymir, but as the R.A. of this floor, I have a certain responsibility to make sure that you all buckle down to survive your first year here, and that means no distractions, which means…_no boys._"

"You know, there _are _such things as same-sex relationships," the girl named Ymir muttered, but Annie had refocused her attention to Eren.

"Eren, was it? I'll let things slide this time, since you're new and it's still orientation and all that. But for future reference, there is a time of the day for quiet hours, and during that time no boys from the other floors can come here. I don't care what other girls' floors say, but on _my _floor, there is no exception. Please make sure to pass that along to your floor. Now please leave…you've already caused enough of a distraction."

"I'll take him back to his floor," said Mikasa, finally speaking up. When the R.A. nodded, Mikasa swiftly pulled Eren to his feet and dragged him out the door that led to the stairs.

"Wow…your R.A. sure is a…a…" started Eren, trying to find the right words to describe the scary woman.

"Hard-ass?" Mikasa suggested in a completely monotone voice. The two glanced at each other before bursting into laughter, stopping in the middle of the staircase as they shared the laugh that both of them had missed hearing after all of the stress that came with preparing for college.

"Mikasa, I don't know what I'd do without you," Eren said, placing his hand on the staircase rail, "I'm so glad you came here in the end."

"Wherever you go, I go," Mikasa answered as-a-matter-of-factly, her softened expression betraying the hardness in her voice. Eren smiled at her, and clapped a hand on her back as they reached the door of Eren's floor.

"I'll see you and Armin during orientation, alright?" he asked, his smile breaking into a grin.

Mikasa nodded, a small smile finally gracing her features. It was one of the true, genuine smiles that both Eren and Armin yearned to see on her face more often

"By the way," Eren added, his hand on the door handle to the 7th floor, "Did you know that my R.A. is an international wrestling champion?"

He savored the wide-eyed look of shock on Mikasa's face as he finally opened the door to re-enter the living hell he was now forced to call home.

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There you have it! I hope you guys liked it. Also, please let me know if you like the length of these chapters...I was thinking of making them longer, but if you guys are comfortable with how they are now, then I'll keep them around this length.

Remember...more reviews means faster updates! )

Until next time,

-Jay


	3. Who Are These People Anyway?

I just can't seem to stop dishing out chapters! Thank you once again for all of the reviews and follows! I hope you don't think the story is going too slowly...it will definitely pick up once I get through these first few chapters.

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. I wish I did. But I don't. And that makes me sad.

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**Chapter 3**

**Who Are These People Anyway?**

Jean hadn't been in the room since Eren had unpacked his stuff—the football player had gone out to dinner with his friends and Eren had made himself some quality top ramen, the king of college food—so he enjoyed what little bit of downtime he had before the first floor meeting (he certainly didn't spend it lying in bed and staring blankly at the ceiling). He glanced at his phone—6pm. The R.A. had gone door to door reminding everyone to meet in the hallway at 6 in order to do an icebreaker activity (groan).

Eren sighed, rising from the bed, and dragged himself out of the room into the hallway. Armin and Marco had already gone back to the 5th floor, so the only person he knew to keep him company was Connie. He found his friend standing near the elevator with someone who had dark brown hair and a shy expression on his face.

"This is Bertholdt," Connie said, gesturing towards the guy, "He's my roommate."

"Nice to meet you," said Eren, extending his hand. Bertholdt gave him a weird look, but shook it nonetheless.

"Bertholdt is kind of quiet," said Connie, and said roomate nodded in agreement.

Awkward.

At least he didn't have to be with Jean—

"Alright, Maria 7th floor! Everyone go find their roommate and pair up with them!" came Reiner's voice.

_Well, crap._

Eren located the football player, who glared at him and grunted. To Eren's satisfaction…uh, guilt, he was still holding an icepack to his swollen cheek. Everyone stood in a circle, with Reiner in the middle.

"Everybody here? Good! Okay, for those of you who still don't know me by now, my name is Reiner Braun—"

Gasps of shock as they recognized the wrestler—

"And I'm the R.A. of this floor. I'm a junior and a double major in mechanical and aerospace engineering in the Trost School of Engineering, so you could say I know a bit about the academics of this school. How many people here are engineering majors?"

About six guys raised their hands.

"Cool, cool. Well, if you ever need any help with anything, don't hesitate to ask me. Now, as R.A. of the floor I have a certain responsibility to make sure you all are the most successful you can be for your first year at Kyojin University. You were all accepted here for a reason, not just because you got the grades in high school. There's a certain standard to this place that I don't want to see any of you guys drop below. To ensure this, I have a few rules in place to ensure—"

Groans from everyone on the floor—

"_To ensure that your experience here will be as positive as possible,_" continued Reiner, a little bit louder. "There are only a few rules. First, no screwing around in the study room. People here actually want to learn, unlike the peers you might have had in high school. Second, I will not tolerate any sort of bullying, whether it's based on race, orientation, etc., etc. We're supposed to be beyond beating up people for no real reason."

A glance at Eren and Jean, who coughed and looked away from each other.

"My last rule might upset some of you, but it's the most important one. Keep drugs and drinking off the floor. I don't care what you do in your free time, but if I catch any of you drunk off your ass one night or smoking in your room, I will take action."

At this Jean gave an over-exaggerated groan. Reiner turned around and locked eyes with him with an intense glare.

"I have seen far too many people go over the edge due to drug and drinking problems," he said in a low voice, his gaze never wavering, "I've seen my own classmates give up their dreams and succumb to living on the streets, or selling their soul to the military _because they had nowhere else to go. _You guys have a better chance than that; that's why you're in college."

Jean finally broke off his gaze, staring at the floor instead. He clenched his teeth.

_Reiner is a really passionate guy, _thought Eren in both fear and admiration. To his side he saw Connie looking at Reiner with an expression of pure admiration, hanging on to every last word. He had to remember that this was the guy who convinced Connie to go to school, and now he knew why.

"Moving on," continued the R.A., "Let's get to know each other, shall we? Please tell everyone your name, your major, where you're from, and something interesting about you."

The next 15 minutes passed by in a daze as the 40 people on the floor gave their obligatory introductions. Eren didn't pay attention, but he did catch the names of a few people he thought he might want to get to know: Bertholdt Hoover, the quiet guy, was actually something of a genius—majoring in Genetics with dreams of going to medical school. He also happened to be a childhood friend of the R.A._—It'd be good to make a connection with him_, thought Eren—and, to everyone's surprise, a 3rd degree black belt in Taekwondo. Then there was Thomas Wagner, a blonde guy who was a Civil Engineering major (Eren had been considering majoring in engineering and needed someone to talk to), and finally someone named Franz who was an Architecture major who also wanted to go into pre-law. His girlfriend, Hannah, had gone to Eren's high school, so he figured he might as well try to be friends with him.

He also learned a bit more about the people he already knew. Jean was majoring in Sports Medicine (of course, he had gotten in with a football scholarship), and Connie had decided to double major in Computer Science and Criminology ("Hey! I wanted to have options. I may have wanted to join the military, Eren, but I'm not_ stupid."_)

After all of the introductions, Reiner dismissed everybody to bed ("If I find hair in the showers tomorrow morning for any reason, there _will _be hell to pay."), and reminded everyone to wake up by 8am the next morning for orientation.

As Eren lay in bed, unable to drown out Jean's snores, he thought about Mikasa and Armin. He wondered how they were doing, considered texting them, but gave up when he saw it was already past midnight.

So far he was a bit pessimistic about this whole college thing. His had already gotten into a fight with his roommate, and he had no clue what he wanted to study, much less what he wanted to do with his life.

_Just take it one step at a time._

His mother had used to say that all the time…

Eren grunted, rolled over, and shut his eyes.

* * *

_DON'T STOP BELIEVING!_

_HANG ON TO THAT FEELING!_

Eren bolted upright in his bed, heart racing as the rock music blasted through the small dorm room. To his left Jean groaned, groping around blindly for his phone. Eren let out the breath he had been holding and lay back down, trying to get just a few more minutes of—

_Ding!_

Shit.

_GOOD MOORRRRRNING, FRESHMAN! This is your orientation leader, Zoe Hanji! Remember me?_

"How could we not?" mumbled Jean, who had finally turned off his alarm.

_In a few minutes orientation activities will begin! Please make sure to meet your R.A.s downstairs in the lobby of your respective dorms. Please have a buddy to walk with you at all times as this campus is big and very easy to get lost in. You will have your first breakfast in the dining hall, and then…off to the campus tour! Also, make sure to stop by the gym to check out our super awesome Recon Fencing—_

_Hanji, you're not supposed to advertise on here! _came another voice from the P.A. system, this time from a different female voice. There was some static and shuffling heard before the new voice continued, _Please go downstairs to the lobby now to meet your R.A. That is all._

_AND GOOOOOOO TITANS! _Zoe's voice shouted from the background, before the P.A. system _ding_-ed again.

Jean and Eren glanced at each other, and then hastily got out of bed to prepare for the big day. A few minutes later they were cramped against each other in the elevator as everyone on the floor had decided to leave at the same time.

"I have a feeling we're going to have to start getting used to this," Connie's sleepy voice muttered from in front of him.

Breakfast in the dining hall was better than Eren had expected. There had been different stations for different meals (Eren had gotten an omelet and some bacon), and everything was buffet style. He spotted Armin sitting with Marco and eagerly waved to them.

"So Eren," Armin started once Eren had sat down, "Marco's the coolest guy ever! Do you know he plays guitar? And piano? And the violin? He's like some sort of musical prodigy! He even played some music for me last night!"

"I'm not that good," Marco said softly, but had a huge smile on his face. "What was your major, by the way?"

"Uh…I'm undeclared," replied the brunette, "I'm guessing you're a music major?"

"I wish," replied Marco as Armin quickly explained, "Kyojin actually doesn't have a music school here. What Marco's majoring in is…um…wait, what was it again Marco?"

"Economics," Marco replied. At Eren's shocked look he continued, "It wasn't my first choice of a major, but it made my parents happy. If I could I would do Literature instead."

"Why not both?" asked Armin.

"I guess that's a possibility…"

All three teens choked on their food as the all-too familiar _Ding! _of the P.A. system sounded once again. To their relief (somewhat), the second female voice calmly instructed them to finish up their meals and meet outside with their respective floors. Eren waved goodbye to Armin and Marco, briefly wondering why Mikasa hadn't joined them for breakfast, stepped outside, and promptly collided with a group of people. As he rubbed his arm he saw what everyone was gathered around.

A girl with glasses and long brown hair tied in a ponytail was standing on the backs of two football players, holding a giant megaphone. The somewhat crazed expression on her face made Eren uneasy.

"HELLO FRESHIES! Now you get to see the face behind the voice! I'm Zoe Hanji, and I'm your orientation leader! You're a lucky floor to get me…you'll _never_ forget your freshman orientation experience after this. Now follow me, freshmen Titans! "

Eren and Connie looked at each other, and gulped as they prepared for an orientation of doom.

* * *

Dun, dun, dunnnnn. I hope this chapter wasn't too boring for you guys! D: Trust me things will pick up and you'll be seeing more characters! In case anyone is wondering what Mikasa and Armin are majoring in, you'll find out in the next chapter.

Remember: more reviews means more chapters!

Until next time,

-Jay


	4. Orientation: Freshman Equals Freshmeat

I am SO SORRY for the wait...school has started up for me again, and being a sophomore in college is proving to be more challenging than I thought. To make up for it I wrote a longer chapter! I'll try to update as much as I can, but chapters might take a little longer to post. ^^;

**Disclaimer: **agnkabgabhdfdon'townanythingskjtbskbhd

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Orientation: Freshman=Freshmeat**

"Alright, Titans, our first stop brings us to the Shinganshina School of Arts and Sciences! This is the largest of the 7 schools at Kyojin University, and is home to over half of the majors offered here! As a student of the school myself, I can answer any questions you have! The school was founded…"

Eren zoned out as the hyper senior talked on and on about the school. Honestly, half of the information that Hanji was telling them about the university was stuff he already knew, since he had done his research far in advance before moving in. He remained in his half-listening, half-dozing state as Zoe Hanji ("Call me Hanji, by the way!") okay, _Hanji _led Eren's floor into the Shinganshina building.

What greeted them were frogs.

Hundreds of frogs.

_FROGS?!_

_"Ribbit!"_

Even Hanji looked at a loss for words as the 7th floor of Maria Hall tried to process what was going on. Suddenly, one of the frogs jumped onto Connie. He blanched, gingerly yanking it from his arm.

"Hey!" he said, dangling the frog from his fingers instead of dropping it, "Why is there a white stripe on its forehead?"

"NOOOOO!" someone shrieked. They all jumped as Hanji pushed through the boys to where Connie was, snatching the frog from his hands. She examined every centimeter of the frog, murmuring to herself with a horrified look on her face. Eren himself felt a frog jump onto his shoe and he yelped, trying to shake it off without hurting it.

"These frogs were supposed to be for my experiment!" their orientation leader howled, sinking to her knees and going Lion King on the defenseless amphibian, "I was trying to see if they could recognize themselves in the mirror if I put a white stripe on them! BUT NOW THEY ALL HAVE WHITE STRIPES! WHERE ARE MY CONTROL SPECIMENS!?"

"That's a fascinating idea!" exclaimed Bertholdt, whose voice was drowned out by Hanji's moans of horror.

"Uh, shouldn't we be worrying about the rest of the frogs too?!" shouted Jean angrily, who had three frogs climbing up his pants, but his words went unnoticed by the senior, whose expression had gone from horrified to _bloodthirsty._

"I will find the people who did this and make sure _I'm _the one cutting up their carcasses when they die," she hissed as she stood up, frog in hand and surrounded by her ribbiting minions. Her glasses had caught the glare from the sunlight through the window, giving her the appearance of a mad scientist…heck, she _was _a mad scientist.

Snickers were heard from the staircase to their right, and they craned their heads just in time to see the backs of three heads running away. Hanji roared and hurled the frog into the air, beaning one of guys in the head. Hanji picked up another frog to throw, but was stopped by Reiner Braun's hand grabbing her wrist.

"Hanji, you can't just throw around animals like that!" he shouted.

"They're fine! I injected them with a serum I made that boosts their adrenaline levels and…huh? When did you get here, Reiner?" asked the biology major, blinking, dropping the frog.

"I was eating breakfast, but then you took my floor!" he exclaimed, "Hanji, you and I were supposed to do this together! It's an R.A. and an Orientation Leader giving them the tour, remember!?"

His voice shook with anger but Hanji seemed unfazed.

"It's not my fault you ate too slowly. Take it easy, Wrestler Boy," she responded, shrugging her shoulders. The freshmen stared at her, expecting Reiner to twist her neck right then and there. Instead, the R.A. sighed, scratching his head, to everyone's surprise.

"Alright, you win," he said, causing Hanji to grin, "Just don't use any of these guys for your experiments this time, okay?"

_This time?!_

"I can't make any promises!" Hanji sang.

"_Ribbit!"_

"And where did these frogs come from?!"

Eren sighed. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

Hanji had decided to abandon the tour of the Shinganshina building until the frogs were taken care of (somehow), so she and Reiner took the boys to the Trost School of Engineering, the two bickering the whole way. Hanji made sure to enter first, going down the hallway and entering some of the lecture halls to check if they were clear. She gave the go-ahead, and everyone else entered warily.

"Alright! I'll let Reiner tell you guys about the place since he's in the school," said Hanji, beginning to lead them down one of the halls, and Reiner launched into a long explanation about the history of Trost—how it was named after the infamous city that was the first of many saved by humans during the old Titan Wars, and how a lot of the engineering students were working on the breaking-edge technology to enhance the 3-D Maneuver Gear that was currently being used by soldiers in the military. At this point Eren started to pay more attention. He had always been interested in how the 3-D Maneuver Gear worked—what kind of training was needed to master all of the motor functions, what else he could do besides leaping from building to building, etc. etc.

Hanji then led everyone into one of the lecture halls so they could sit and watch one of the mandatory slideshows about the school. Eren sat between Jean (to his dismay) and Thomas Wagner, while Connie and the others sat one row behind them. Eren attempted to start a conversation with Thomas (so he wouldn't have to talk to Jean) while Hanji and Reiner set up the presentation.

"So uh…that was weird, with the frogs and all," Eren started, chuckling, and the blonde looked at him. To his relief he chuckled as well, answering, "Yeah, I didn't really expect those kinds of things to happen at this school…but here we are anyway! By the way, I'm Thomas…what was your name again?"

"Eren. So, was engineering your first major?"

"You know, not exactly. I originally wanted to join the police, but…say, your last name isn't Jaeger, is it?"

"Uh…it is?" answered Eren, confused. His confusion grew when Thomas eyes seemed to bug out of his head and he began bouncing around in his seat (Jean glanced over at this point).

"So _you_ were the guy who made that infamous graduation speech!" Thomas finally burst out.

Eren was baffled. He had been chosen to give the graduation speech at his high school, but Thomas hadn't gone there…

"Wait, did you say infamous?" he asked.

"Yeah! Dude, you were on TV! They were talking about how amazing your speech was!" Eren could swear he saw Thomas' eyes sparkling as he spoke.

"I didn't know I was being filmed…I don't have a TV," Eren mumbled, embarrassed, but was unheard by Thomas as he continued with his rant.

"Eren, you inspired me to come here rather than just throw away my life joining the police without seeing what I could really do! I owe you everything, man. Just say the word and I'm there!"

Eren gaped at him. Jean huffed and returned his glare to the front of the room, where Reiner was trying to get everyone's attention.

"LISTEN UP!" he finally belted out, and everyone sat up straight in their seats and faced him. Thomas winked at Eren, who was still confused out of his mind.

"Here we have a presentation about the Trost School of Engineering, so pay attention," their R.A. said, pulling down a white projector screen.

Eren gasped.

Connie snickered.

Bertholdt and Thomas shook in their seats.

_7__TH__ FLOOR OF MARIA HALL, YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN! _was scrawled on the white screen in red paint, accompanied by a picture of the school's mascot dripping red paint from scribbled on fangs. Reiner only had a second to mutter an expletive before the lights suddenly went out. Whispers of the frightened freshmen filled the room before a bone-chilling screech was heard from the ceiling. Eren's head snapped up to see what was going on, but he could only see a glint of metal before something swooped dangerously close to his head. He could hear Thomas' panicked shout from beside him, and a grunt of anger from Jean as everybody flailed around, trying to fend off their attackers.

"It's just a prank from the seniors!" Eren could hear Hanji call out, "They must have done the frogs too…they do this every year…I'm just sorry that our floor was chosen-!" and then her sentence turned into a squawk as she also was attacked by a black shape.

"ENOUGH!" Reiner roared from another side of the room, and then the lights suddenly turned back on. Eren heard a scuffle from beside him and saw Jean restraining one of the black shapes, which turned out to be someone dressed in all black wearing…

_3-D Maneuver Gear!_

"I think he's an Engineering student!" Jean said, trying to pull off the person's mask, which was a face of one of the Armoured Titan mascots for the football team. Reiner ran over and roughly yanked the mask off, revealing a head of white-blonde hair.

"LUKAS!" he bellowed as the blonde glared at him, "Students aren't allowed to use the 3-D Maneuver Gear outside of class!"

"Calm down, Reiner, we were just testing out an advancement we designed for ceiling use on the freshies," replied Lukas, who had a sneer on his face. From what Eren could see, Lukas was someone not much taller than him and had a stocky build. He had a pointy nose and a scar shaped like a "U" on his chin.

"And to think they made you captain of the football team," Hanji muttered before flinching when Lukas glared at her. Jean had taken a step back, to Eren's surprise.

"You know I really would love to stay and chat, but I have work to do!" Lukas exclaimed, suddenly headbutting Reiner in the stomach and causing him to gasp for air. He ran out of the lecture hall, shouting on his way out, "By the way, Oluo planned all of this! You haven't seen anything yet!"

"Oh dear…not Oluo," murmured Hanji once the football captain had left.

"Wh-what does that mean?" Bertholdt stuttered from behind Eren.

"It means," Reiner answered, letting out a sigh, "That we are in for one hell of a day."

* * *

Reiner wasn't lying. They had been pelted with water balloons filled with egg yolk at the Hermiha School of Business, been tricked into entering a maze (which was designed so that the only way to get out was to go through a tunnel that contained a trail of used condoms) at the Stohess School at Architecture, trapped within doorways that were covered with transparent tape at the Yalkell School at Law, and had slipped and slid down a floor covered with butter at the Chlorba School of Education.

Reiner was at his wits' end.

So was Hanji, who looked like she might snap (and/or murder somebody) at any second.

Bad news for the 7th floor of Maria Hall.

At last they arrived at the last school, the Karanese School of Medicine. However, a new type of surprise greeted them in the form of a short black-haired man holding up two guys who were trapped in a net.

"I caught them," the man deadpanned, not seeming to care that 40 freshman were all staring at him with their mouths wide open.

"Levi!" cried Hanji, "What are you doing here?"

"These numbskulls were setting some sort of trap for the new batch of shitty bra—freshmen," replied the shorter of the two (shorter of the whole group was more like it), "Unfortunately for these two, they forgot that Karanese is right next to the Fitness Center…I just happened to be the right person walking by at exactly the right time."

"Man, you sure held back!" exclaimed Reiner, chuckling as he walked up to Levi, "I can handle them from here, if you'd like."

"No, I'd like to ask them a question," said Levi, glaring at the students inside of the net, which he dropped to the ground. "Was Oluo in charge of this?"

"We aren't telling you anything, you-!" _SMACK. _"Okay, okay, it was Oluo! He planned the whole thing!"

"That idiot," muttered Levi, brows furrowing, "I guess you'll have to deal with Erwin while I find him. Hanji, you have my permission to use these two for your experiments as you wish."

Ignoring Hanji's overjoyed cheer, Levi approached the group of freshmen.

"Oi, freshmen. You're required to join a sport at Kyojin, so check out fencing. The football team is full of shitheads anyway."

And then he walked off.

_Well, that was weird, _thought Eren, but he didn't have time to dwell on it as Hanji finally led them on a tour of a building that wasn't filled with frogs, flying football players, or a trail of condoms.

That evening, all of the freshmen from Maria Hall met together to celebrate their first full day at the university. Eren noticed Mikasa and ran over to her.

"How was orientation?" he wanted to ask, but was interrupted by Jean, who had mysteriously appeared in front of Eren.

"So you're Mikasa Ackerman, huh?" the football player asked, walking up to her and putting a hand on his hip. "The guys here have told me you're pretty smart—top of your class in high school and studying to be a doctor and all at Karanese. So brains and beauty, huh?"

Jean would have gone on if Mikasa hadn't chosen to drop-kick him and deliver a nicely-aimed punch to his gut at that point. Jean howled and sunk to the ground.

"You forgot 'exemplary fighter,'" Eren piped up.

Mikasa walked over to Eren gave him a quick, light hug. Jean sputtered as Armin and Marco ran over, noticing their friends.

"I heard you guys were the target of the upperclassmen this year," Mikasa said to Eren. "You sure look like it, too."

It was true. Eren was still dripping with egg yolk, arms and legs smeared with butter. Mikasa frowned and turned back towards Jean before Eren could say anything.

"Were you the one that hit Eren yesterday?"

"I don't know what you're talking-!"

_SMACK._

Jean now had a bruise on the other side of his face.

"Man, you're getting beat up pretty bad over there, aren't you?" chuckled Marco, who walked up and offered Jean a hand while Armin refused to move close. Jean flushed inexplicably but took Marco's hand nevertheless.

"Go easy on Jean, will you, Mikasa?" Marco asked Mikasa kindly, "He still has a few loose screws in there."

"Hey!" Jean exclaimed, but Marco simply smiled and dragged Jean away. Armin ran over to Mikasa and Eren once Jean had left. As Mikasa handed Eren a hankerchief she pulled from her pocket, Armin eagerly recounted his tour of Shinganshina (for he was a double major in both Neuroscience and History, both majors being offered at the Arts and Sciences school). Then the three of them followed the rest of the freshmen, where they encountered…

"FOOD TRUCKS!" a brown-haired girl who had appeared next to Mikasa gushed, tears in her eyes. Eren stared at the girl who now seemed to be drooling as they stood in front of the plethora of food trucks.

"She's my roommate, Sasha Blouse," explained Mikasa.

"Uh…"

"She…really likes food."

"Right."

Armin had a strange look on his face.

"So, what sports are you guys thinking of joining?" asked Eren once the three of them had gotten their meals and sat down away from the crowd (Sasha had gone to four different food trucks and eventually joined up with Ymir and Krista).

"I'll do whatever you do, Eren," Mikasa answered on auto-pilot.

"I wan to thoo shoccer!" exclaimed Armin, who was munching on a hamburger, "I heard ish a game fuwl of stwategy!"

"That'd be a good sport for you, Armin," Mikasa commented, giving the blonde a smile and causing Armin to choke.

"Eren, what do you want to do?" Armin had asked once Mikasa had thumped him on the back.

Eren thought back to his experience with Levi, and his seemingly random order to the freshmen.

"I want to do fencing."

* * *

Aaaaaannnnnddd there you have it! I hope it wasn't too long, but I felt a need to add more stuff since I took so long to update.

BTW, Lukas is an OC of mine. Fortunately (or unfortunately), you'll be seeing more of him in the future!

Until next time,

-Jay


	5. Firsts, Firsts, Firsts

*slowly peeks in head* Hi everybody! ^^; I know it's been...almost 2 months since I last updated, but give me a second to explain before you all start waving pitchforks at me.

Last month there were problems with pneumonia, so I had to put everything on halt for a while. Luckily, everything's all back to normal, but now I'm stuck in the middle of midterms...as a sophomore in college, midterms are _not _the easiest things to study for. So that's what has been going on in my life and why it's taken me eons to post a chapter. But I made this chapter long to make up for the months of not updating. I hope you enjoy it! The next few chapters are going to get more exciting, so fasten your seatbelts!

**Also...**this might be interesting to you...a lot of what I'm writing is actually based on my own experiences as a freshman in college (obviously not as extreme though). For example, you're about to read a lot about fencing, which is what I do myself in college. So most of the info you read about fencing in this chapter is from what I personally know.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything. I mean, did you really expect a teenager to own any of this stuff?

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**Firsts, Firsts, Firsts**

The first week of college life presented the freshmen of Kyojin University with many firsts.

For Marco, it had been the first time he had been thrown into a fountain.

For Connie, it was the first time he had seen two girls kiss.

For Armin, it was the first time he had stood up to someone with the help of Mikasa or Eren.

For Mikasa, it was the first time she had ever had her ass handed back to her in a fight.

And for Eren…it had been the first time he had gotten a hard-on from someone who was _definitely not _Mikasa.

* * *

MONDAY

The day had started off relatively normal. Armin was gone when Marco had woken up (Armin had classes at 7am due to his rigorous course schedule), so Marco had a good hour to himself in order to get ready for the first day of class. He pulled a comb through short dark hair and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, trying to remember the dream he had the night before.

Maybe playing some music would help. He wasn't really in the mood to work out his arms playing the violin, so he unpacked his guitar instead. Balancing the instrument on his lap, he lightly strummed the strings, making sure each one was perfectly in tune. Then he began to play, humming a simple song he used to sing to children at the daycare he volunteered at when he was in high school.

Ah…there it was. Now he remembered the dream.

He had been reading The Prince and the Pauper, one of his favourite books, sitting against the wall of an old cottage that had faced what in his mind appeared to be the ocean. Marco was from a district that was deep inland, so he had never been to a beach before. However the books he read were enough to supplement his imagination. He had been humming that very same song while he read.

Suddenly, a shadow had fallen over him, causing Marco to look up. There was a figure staring down at him, but its face had been blocked by the sunlight. Marco had squinted, trying to make it out…he could almost see the person's hair-!

_Knock, knock. _"Hey, Marco! You in there? W-wanna go to breakfast?"

Jean's voice had snapped Marco out of his trance. He put his guitar down and opened the door, revealing his only close friend at college so far. Jean looked a little uncomfortable as he swayed from foot to foot.

"What is it Jean?"

"Um…that song you were playing…it was nice," mumbled Jean.

Marco smiled.

After breakfast, Marco said goodbye to Jean and headed to his first class, Philosophy. He spotted one of the girls he had seen at orientation, Ymir, at sat down next to her. Ymir raised an eyebrow at him.

"Er...I hope you don't mind me sitting here," Marco started, "You were the only person I recognized, so I kind of…um…"

"Whatever," Ymir said gruffly, crossing her arms.

Okay. So Ymir wasn't a morning person.

Suddenly, shouting was heard from outside of the lecture hall, accompanied by sounds of a scruffle. A man with thick eyebrows and nicely-combed blonde hair burst through the door, papers flying from a partially opened briefcase clutched in his right hand. A red hand-shaped mark was on his left cheek, clearly visible in contrast to his light skin. He scrambled to the podium in the center of the room, set his suitcase on it, and slumped over the suitcase.

The entire room was silent.

After a few moments, the man raised his head and slowly rose to stand up straight.

"My apologies," he said calmly, "I'm afraid I was just involved in what you might call a 'lover's spat.'"

More silence.

"Moving on," the man continued, clearing his throat, "I am your Philosophy instructor, Erwin Smith. There is already another Professor Smith on campus so you may call me Professor Erwin. For those of you who are involved with fencing, I serve as one of the coaches. You will find that a lot of the faculty here are also involved in non-academic activities such as sports or student organizations."

While Professor Erwin went over classroom policies and what they would cover in future lectures, Marco found himself doodling a drawing of Jean in his notebook. He paid special attention to making sure the shape of his jaw was perfect. He felt someone's eyes on him and found Ymir staring at him.

"Um…what's up?" Marco asked quietly.

"Is that Jean?"

"Yeah…"

"You're a good artist," Ymir stated, then returned her focus on Professor Erwin. Marco breathed a small sigh of relief, thankful that Ymir didn't ask _why_ he was drawing Jean.

The class went by in a flash, with Professor Erwin letting the students leave early since it was the first day. Overjoyed, Marco made his way over to a nice sitting area near the football field. The area contained a fountain (with a marble statue of the infamous Female Titan holding up two bowls from which water streamed from) and some cherry blossom trees. Instead of taking a seat on one of the fountains, Marco chose to sit against of the three surrounding marble walls, and pulled out another one of his favourite books, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

He had only gotten through five pages when a shadow fell over him. He glanced up, heart pounding, and to his dismay, recognized the captain of the football team, Lukas, along with three other big-built guys.

"Watcha got there, Shakespeare?" Lukas sneered, flipping his white-blonde fringe away from his forehead. The three guys behind him chuckled densely.

"Um…it's a classic," Marco mumbled, keeping his eyes trained on the ground. He didn't dare move.

"I certainly hope you don't intend to try out for the football team," Lukas continued, bending down slowly to take the book from Marco's hands, "We don't like to have our reputation tainted by fairies prancing around on our field."

"I wasn't intending to," Marco responded, voice shaking. He couldn't believe that these college students were still teasing him as if they were all in middle school. He made a feeble attempt to snatch the book away from Lukas, who quickly retracted his arm and _tsk'_ed.

"Ah, ah, ah, fairy boy," said the football captain, "The first rule of setting foot on turf near football territory is to never mess with the football team."

The three boys started moving forward.

"Let's teach this freshie a lesson, shall we?" sneered Lukas, the scar on his chin as prominent as ever.

The next five seconds went by in a blur. The next thing he knew, he was sprawled out in the fountain—he had been dumped in by those Three Stooges-his copy of the book in the water beside him along with all of his belongings.

"Let's not let this happen again," Lukas finished, crossing his arms, "Watch where you tread near football territory."

The four football players laughed and left the area, leaving a shell-shocked Marco to collect his thoughts and hold back burning tears.

* * *

TUESDAY

Connie hadn't meant to go to the party.

Really, he hadn't.

He and many other members of Maria Hall had received the same slip under their doors earlier in the morning (unbeknownst to Reiner, who probably would have burned the papers in an instant) inviting them to 'Titan Brawl' in Sina Hall. Connie had been studying for a quiz for one of his engineering classes when he got the slip.

He really should have just thrown it away.

Eight hours later after all of his classes had ended, Connie found himself dragging a very unwilling Bertholdt with him to the party-_my first college party,_ Connie thought as he bit back a grin—and proudly entering the infamous dorm chock-full of the students who probably bathed in money every day just because they could.

Connie soon found out that even though they were rich, the students of Sina Hall really knew how to party. Four illegal shots in, and most of the freshmen were sprawled out on couches and the floor. The music was as loud as ever, as were the upperclassmen who were better at holding their drinks and were currently dancing. Connie and Bertholdt had run into Ymir and Krista, and, seeing as all four of them had not yet had alcohol, decided to stick together for the remainder of the night.

"College parties are pretty crazy, huh?" murmured Bertholdt, tracing circles with his thumb on the floor.

"Don't ask me; it wasn't my choice to be here," Ymir snapped, crossing her arms and glaring at Krista, who giggled.

"I think it's kind of fun!" Connie exclaimed, "I just don't really know how…"

"To party?" a voiced laced with sarcasm answered. All four of them looked up to see Lukas, the football player who had ruined their orientation, sneering down at them and clutching a bottle of what looked like vodka in his hand.

"I can show you guys how to party," he said, making eye contact with each one of them.

"Go away, Lukas," shot back Ymir, glaring at him.

"Easy, sister," Lukas responded, "I'm only trying to make this fun for all of us. What did you plan to do here, anyway? Just sit around while everybody else is having the time of their lives?"

Bertholdt looked at the ground while Connie frowned. The football player did have a point.

"Just a few drinks, I promise," Lukas continued, noticing the slight change in heart from at least two of the underclassmen. He extended the arm holding the vodka bottle to Connie.

"Connie, don't take it," Bertholdt said softly, "You've never even had alcohol-!"

Too late. Connie took a swig from the bottle.

What happened next was almost a blur.

Almost.

Connie remembered Ymir standing up to punch Lukas, who easily dodged her and instead grabbed Krista by the arm, dragging the smaller blonde girl to her feet.

He could vaguely hear Ymir shouting, but that music was really starting to get loud—

His throat was burning, was that normal?—

Lukas bent down to kiss Krista, only to have the girl snatched from his arms by Ymir—

"Don't you dare!"

"Then why don't you do it, Ymir?"

You know, Lukas sometimes had really good ideas—

"What?!"

His ears were ringing; Bertholdt seemed to be shouting something angrily-

More shouting from Ymir, arguing, Krista pleading with Lukas, Ymir blushing, the lights were really bright, his palms were getting sweaty—

And then then Ymir and Krista were kissing.

Like, _really_ kissing.

The shock was enough to snap Connie out of whatever daze he had entered Beside him Bertholdt's face had turned a lovely shade of pink as the two girls were kissing—no, _making out_—in front of them. Krista had her arms looped around Ymir's neck while the other was threading her fingers through the blonde's hair. Lukas was taking photos with his phone.

Wait, was that _tongue?_

"Alright, alright, break it up!" shouted a girl with white hair and glasses. She shoved Lukas out of the way and pulled the two girls apart. "Lukas, what did I say about giving freshmen alcohol!?"

"Lay off, Rico. They wanted to party, so I gave them a party."

The other looked at the four freshmen. Ymir seemed to be in a daze, Krista's face was as red as a tomato; Bertholdt just seemed at a loss for words, and Connie was swaying on his feet, the vodka bottle beginning to slip from his hands.

Rico groaned, and adjusted the glasses on her face. She snatched the bottle from Connie's hands and steered Ymir and Krista towards Bertholdt.

"Whoever you are, take your friends home," Rico said to Bertholdt. "Where do you live?"

"M-Maria Hall," the other stammered, his eyes flitting to Connie who had now sunken to his knees and was giggling to himself.

"Tell Reiner Braun that Rico from Sina wants Lukas to be banned from entering the freshmen dorms," Rico said, ignoring protests from the football player, "And I'm sorry this DICKWAD got you all mixed up in this." At _dickwad, _Rico had planted one of her feet into Lukas' stomach, causing him to keel over and gasp.

Bertholdt felt his face heat up at the prospect of him having to talk to Reiner, but he nodded nevertheless, and starting guiding his friends towards the door to get out of this madness.

* * *

WEDNESDAY

"PUT YOUR BACKS INTO IT, LADIES!" roared the coach of the soccer team, Keith Shadis. Armin gulped, and tried once again to bounce the soccer ball on his foot. Tryouts for the team were today, and while Armin was completely confident in the strategy of the game, he was completely clueless when it came to simple motor functions such as bouncing a ball on his foot.

Thomas Wagner, on the other hand, seemed to be a soccer pro. He easily bounced the ball from foot to foot, his steps nimble as he flawlessly alternated feet.

"You need help over there, Armin?" Thomas asked, winking. Armin shook his head vigorously, but lost balance of the ball in the process.

"ARLERT!" And suddenly Coach Shadis was looming over him. Armin blanched.

"Drop that ball again and you are dismissed from tryouts!"

"G-got it!" Armin stuttered. Beside him, Thomas snickered. Armin bit back tears, and resumed bouncing the ball on his foot.

Thomas, on the other hand, had another agenda. When Coach Shadis had turned to yell at another student, he suddenly kicked his ball into Armin's. Armin yelped, paling as he saw his ball roll away from him.

"ARLERT!"

"It wasn't me!" Armin protested, "Thomas-!"

But Thomas had somehow retrieved his ball and was bouncing it ball from foot to foot as if nothing had happened. Armin gave the coach a pleading look, but was only met with, "You will leave now."

There was no way he was going to argue with that authority. He turned and slowly began walking away from the field. He heard Thomas snicker again.

_No!_

For the first time in his life, Armin looked turned around to fight back.

"COACH SHADIS!" he burst out, marching up to the coach "Give me one chance—one chance to prove myself! I know the game really, well, I swear!"

"What makes you think I care-!"

"PLEASE! One chance…please…" Armin was tempted to sink to his knees, but kept his ground, never breaking eye contact with Coach Shadis.

Shadis recognized the look of determination in the blonde's eyes.

"Fine. One chance. You will play against one student. _This _student," Coach Shadis said, gesturing towards Thomas. "If you make a goal, I'll reconsider you for tryouts."

Armin gulped, but nodded.

5 minutes later and the rest of the students were sitting on the sidelines. Thomas and Armin faced each other as the coach held a soccer ball above their heads.

"Remember, whoever makes the goal stays for tryouts. GO!"

And with that, everything seemed to go in slow motion.

Thomas lunged towards the ball, easily kicking away from Armin.

Armin chased after Thomas, who was kicking the ball and running towards the goal.

Thomas suddenly made a motion like he was going to move to the right.

_No…he's going to feint!_

Armin's eyes narrowed.

Thomas feinted, but Armin was right there with him.

Armin closed in on Thomas and kicked the ball to his right. Thomas roared, but Armin had already taken possession of the ball.

He ran towards the goal, Thomas in tow.

He was getting closer, only a few more footlengths-!

Armin kicked the ball up, bounced it on his foot, and kicked it into the net.

Time sped up back to normal again.

The students were cheering, Coach Shadis had a bemused expression on his face, and Thomas was gaping at the goal. Armin was shaking with happiness. He walked over to Coach Shadis and looked at him expectantly.

"Well, um," the coach began, clearing his throat, "That was…impressive. Congratulations, you're back on."

_YES!_

Two exhausting hours later, the tryouts had ended. Armin was in the locker room changing, still grinning because of his victory. He was just beginning to button up his shirt when he felt a hand on his shoulder. By reflex, Armin flinched, but turned around and was met with a warm smile from Thomas.

"Congrats, Armin. You made the team."

The next thing Armin knew, he was on the ground and Thomas was bending over him, pressing a wet cloth to his forehead.

"W-what happened?" Armin stuttered.

"I think you passed out from happiness," Thomas said with a cheeky grin. "I forgot to tell you—the coach made us co-captains!"

"That's great!" Armin replied as Thomas helped him sit up. "Does…that make us friends now?"

"Of course!" Thomas gave Armin a small punch in the shoulder, and Armin laughed.

"Man, I can't wait to tell Eren!" he exclaimed. Thomas froze.

"Armin, do you mean Eren Jeager?"

"Um…yes?"

"THEN WE ARE GOING TO BE BEST FRIENDS FOREVER!" Thomas roared, his eyes alight with the flames of…friendship. "Man, the three of us are gonna have so much fun, and we're gonna party together and do homework together and…"

Armin allowed himself to drown out Thomas' excited voice as he texted Eren and Mikasa the news that he had made it on the team, and, more importantly, made a new friend.

He could only smile more as he read the texts Eren and Mikasa sent back, repeatedly congratulating him on his success.

* * *

THURSDAY

"Congratulations Miss Ackerman, you scored the highest," Professor Eld Gin said, placing a paper on Mikasa's desk.

It was only four days into the school year and she had already taken her first test in her Introduction to Immunology class. Granted, Mikasa had already read half of the textbook by the time classes started—exemplary as ever—but she was still getting used to the massive workload that came with studying to be get into Medical School, even though she was only a freshman.

Mikasa only nodded as she looked at the tiny '100' written in red ink on the test. Beside her, a girl scoffed about Mikasa not thanking the professor. Fortunately or unfortunately, the girls in the class sort of had a thing for the Professor, who wasn't bad-looking, but apparently was attractive enough to make the girls (and a few guys) swoon each time he turned to face the class after writing on the blackboard.

"Alright, you're dismissed," Professor Gin said once he had finished passing out the rest of the tests, "Make sure to read chapters two and three for the next lecture."

Mikasa sighed, shouldering her bag and adjusting the scarf around her neck—there was so much work to do, not to mention that she had to run back to her dorm to get her books for next class, and hadn't she forgotten to eat breakfast—

"A word, Miss Ackerman?"

Mikasa blinked. She was the only one left in the lecture hall.

"Yes, Professor?" she responded in a monotone voice.

"The other professors here speak very highly of you," the professor said, "And word amongst the other students is that you are not only an exceptional student, but an exceptional athlete as well."

Silence from Mikasa.

"Miss Ackerman, might you consider joining the fencing club? I and a few of my colleagues are coaches, and we think you could even join the Recon Fencing Team if you were up to it."

"Oh! I definitely plan to join!" Mikasa suddenly exclaimed, her expression lighting up, "I was actually planning on going to the meeting tomorrow…" She trailed off, suddenly very conscious of how much emotion she was displaying in front of somebody she barely knew.

"Well, that's certainly good news to hear," Professor Gin replied, laughing, "Would you be opposed to me calling you Mikasa, then? I expect we're going to see each other much more often and I would be more comfortable addressing you on a first-name basis."

"But, Professor—"

"Is that okay, Miss Ackerman?"

Mikasa blinked again, but nodded, visibly relaxing.

"Excellent. Well, I certainly look forward to seeing your progress throughout the year, Mikasa."

"Thank you, Professor," Mikasa said, grabbing the last of her things and exiting the lecture hall.

_Bzzt!_

_Hey, can you believe that Armin made the soccer team? Good for him!_ -Eren

_I'm proud of hsdhff-_

"Hey, watch where you're going, shitty brat!" someone shouted, interrupting Mikasa mid-text as she slammed into someone. Her phone clattered to the floor of the hallway. Mikasa scrambled to the ground, intending to pick it up, but was stopped by someone's shoe.

Mikasa looked up very slowly.

A short man with black hair and a piercing glare stared back down at her. An empty coffee cup was in his hand…and a giant brown stain was soaking his _very_ white dress shirt.

"You stained my shirt," the man deadpanned, unmoving.

"I'm very sorry," Mikasa said sincerely, still trying to reach her phone, but was stopped once again by the man's foot.

"You're going to have to clean this you know."

Mikasa was slowly losing her temper. She only had a few minutes to run to her room to get her books for her next class or she would be late.

"I'm really sorry again, but I don't have time to clean it right now. Please, I have to get to my next—"

"_This shirt is made of Egyptian cotton._"

She _really_ didn't have time for this.

"Just get over it!" she yelled, jumping up and trying to run around the man (who actually was significantly shorter than her). However, the man didn't intend to let her go so easily. He slid to the left, standing in front of her.

Mikasa glared, and tried once again, feinting to her right. Again she was stopped.

Alright. No more playing around.

She swiveled around on her feet, intending to drop-kick the runt, but was surprised when, for the first time, she was knocked to the ground when the man blocked her leg with his and pushed. Mikasa got over the shock and sprung to her feet, preparing for a fist fight. She threw carefully calculated punches, but was blocked each time.

"You know, I don't discriminate against girls," the man said, blocking her every move as he advanced forward, "And I must say you are an exemplary fighter. But not good enough—!"

At this, he lunged forward, bringing up his leg and easily tripping the other—

"To knock me over!"

Mikasa landed on the ground. Hard.

"LEVI! THAT'S MY STUDENT!" came Professor Gin's voice from around the corner of the hallway. The raven-haired man froze, and stepped backward as Professor Gin rounded the corner and reached the scene.

"She ruined my shirt," Levi said blankly, but was ignored as Professor Gin helped Mikasa to her feet.

"Did he hurt you?" he asked. When Mikasa shook her head he sighed.

"Levi, I know you are older than me and rank above me in the fencing room, but in here _I _am the professor and _you _are the student. And as a wise instructor, I can only say one thing: GIVE THE GIRL HER PHONE AND GET OVER THE STUPID SHIRT!"

"You're going to pay for that later!" Levi hissed, but nevertheless bent down to pick up Mikasa's phone and gave it to her.

"Sorry," he said bluntly, not looking at her and crossing his arms.

"Yeah, I hope so," Professor Gin said, "Mikasa here was planning to join the fencing club, and from what you probably saw, she's an excellent athlete. She's a brilliant student as well. I can only hope you didn't just make us lose a potential candidate for sabre!"

Levi finally looked at Mikasa like he was seeing her for the first time. His eyebrows actually rose.

"Well then, _Mikasa_," he drawled out, snapping back to his usual expression, "I look forward to sparring with you in the future."

And with that he walked away, leaving an astonished Mikasa Ackerman in his wake.

* * *

FRIDAY

Eren was hopelessly confused.

Maybe it started when he awoke to find Jean moaning Marco's name in his sleep as the sheets ruffled in a manner which suggested that Jean was _not _dreaming about doing something innocent with Marco.

Or maybe it was when Connie had eagerly approached him the day before and recounted _every single detail _of what had happened at the 'Titan Brawl' party (which he had wanted to go to, but Mikasa gave him a gentle reminder that he had already missed his first day of homework and should catch up).

No. It definitely had to be what had happened just an hour before during the first meet of the fencing club.

_Earlier that day:_

Eren breathed a sigh of relief as his Calculus I professor dismissed the class for the evening. Eren was dismal when it came to math, and he didn't understand how he had placed into such a hard class, so he was struggling with understanding the concepts.

_Maybe I can ask Connie for help,_ he thought as he began walking towards the gym. Today was the first meeting of the fencing club, and, from what he had gathered from Mikasa, they would already start learning the basic movements that came with sparring. He waved eagerly as he spotted Mikasa walking over to him.

"Are you ready for this?" he asked as they both entered the gym. Mikasa nodded, and the two of them entered the designated fencing room.

Eren was only able to catch a glimpse of many people wearing white uniforms and black masks before somebody blocked his view.

"YAY, NEW SACRIFICES!"

Zoe Hanji's face was barely two centimeters from his own.

"Hanji, cut that out! We don't want to scare away any more people," sighed a girl who was standing behind her. The girl had neck-length straight orange hair and wide expressive eyes. She approached the two freshmen and extended her hand. "I'm Petra Ral, one of the officers for the fencing club."

"Nice to meet you," Eren said shaking her hand. Petra smiled and turned to Mikasa.

"Mikasa Ackerman, right?" she asked, extending her hand towards the black-haired girl. When Mikasa nodded, Petra smiled. "We look forward to having you here!"

"Alright everyone, take a seat!" Hanji called out. Eren and Mikasa quickly scampered to find a seat on the ground. To Eren's surprise, a lot of people from Maria Hall had come to the meeting: he quickly located Marco, Sasha, Ymir, Krista, Bertholdt, and Connie all sitting together. He didn't have much time to say hi before Petra, now wearing a fencing uniform, stood to face the new students. Beside her, Hanji was holding a box that seemed to be full of blades.

"Before I introduce everyone," Petra said, "I thought we'd start off with a bit of fun! Today we're going to introduce the three types of blades and what type of fighting comes with each of them."

Eren looked on eagerly as Petra pulled a blade from the first shelf.

"The first blade we have here is called the Foil blade," Petra began, "It's a light blade—" here she swiped the air with the blade to demonstrate—"and is the most common blade for beginners. When you fence foil, you are only allowed to target the torso, back, neck , and groin. You can only score by touching the tip of the blade to any of these areas—flat blades don't count."

Petra handed the blade to Hanji, and put on her mask.

"Now, Hanji and I will demonstrate how to fence using foil."

The two faced each other, then walked backwards to each side of the room.

"Right now we're standing on _en garde_ lines," Petra explained as Hanji put on her own mask. "Our referee, Mike Zacharias, will start the match."

Petra and Hanji both saluted each other, before Mike Zacharias, a man with sand-coloured hair and a moustache shouted "_En garde!_"

Petra and Hanji both lifted their blades and assumed what Eren guessed was a standard fencing position.

"Ready?" called Mike, "_Fence!"_

Petra moved forward, moving her feet in some sort of dance while Hanji assumed a defensive position. Suddenly Petra lunged forward, extending her arm, but was blocked from scoring a point when Hanji lifted her own blade. Petra retreated, using the same sort of footwork, but Hanji suddenly moved forward, lunging before Petra could react and touching the tip of her blade to Petra's stomach. Then they both retreated to their _en garde _lines. Petra lifted the mask from her face as the students clapped.

"That's the basic gist of it," she explained, "Foil matches can sometimes take a long time before anyone scores a point. There's also a concept called Right-Of-Way which regulates who gets the point when we score at the same time. Now, let's move on to the next blade."

Here, she grabbed a second blade from the box that Hanji was now holding.

"The second blade we use in fencing is called the_ Épée. _The épée is a much heavier blade than the foil, and when fencing, the entire body is the target. Again, points can only be made with the tip of the blade." Then she signaled with her hand and two men entered the room in full fencing garb.

"Now we will have two of our épée coaches demonstrate a match," Petra said, handing each man a blade, "Here we have Eld Gin—" at this Mikasa smiled, to Eren's surprise, "—And Gunther Schultz."

The two assumed their positions and the second match began. The match was very similar to the foil one, except in this case Eld and Gunther moved a bit faster, eager to score a point. They seemed to be of equal level, attacking and quickly retreating over and over again to avoid hits. Finally, Eld and Gunther lunged, and scored at the same time—Eld had the tip of his blade on Gunther's neck while Gunther's tip was on Eld's leg.

"In the case of épée, the rules of right-of-way don't matter," explained Petra, "so in this case, they both scored a point."

The students clapped again as both men bowed.

"Now we move on to our third blade, the sabre," Petra said, "I normally wouldn't suggest using this blade as a beginner because it requires very advanced training, but two of our best sabre fencers left last year and we need new students to fill in the spots."

At this she glanced at Mikasa, before looking back to the other students.

"The sabre is a light blade that is used both for thrusting and cutting. You can only target the body above the waist, and, unlike foil or épée, you can score by using the tip and flat side of the blade."

At this Petra gave a hand signal again, and two other masked people walked up to her. One of them was tall and muscular while the other was significantly shorter and thinner. To Eren, it seemed like an uneven match.

"We will have our two best fencers demonstrate a sabre match," Petra said, handing each of them a blade, "And try to watch closely."

The two men assumed their positions and saluted.

_"En garde!"_

Their blades were lifted, fencing stances ready.

"Ready? _Fence!"_

Okay. It was definitely an even match. The short guy was _fast._ They both moved with flawless footwork, approaching and retreating. The shorter of the two seemed to be attacking and lunging with more determination than the others who had fenced, while the taller was trying to score a point, but forced to retreat each time.

The match was over in 10 seconds.

The shorter man had slashed his blade faster than anyone could blink, and the next second the taller had a cut on his uniform from where the shorter had cut it. However this time, they didn't retreat; they only seemed to be staring intensely at each other. Petra cleared her throat.

"Well, then, that's how it goes. Men, will you remove your masks?"

The taller removed his first, revealing white-blonde hair and thick eyebrows. To the left of Eren, Marco and Ymir were gaping.

It was Eren's turn to gape when the smaller man removed his mask.

It was the short guy with that _glare_ who had single-handedly taken down two football players during orientation. Mikasa bristled next to him but Eren chose not to comment.

"Here we have Erwin Smith," Petra said, gesturing towards the blonde, "And Levi. Men, would you like to say anything to our new students before we move on?"

Erwin looked at Levi, who _hmph'_ed and crossed his arms.

"They haven't talked to each other since Monday," Hanji whispered to the other students and snickered. "I bet they got into a spat about Erwin accidentally dying Levi's shirts pink in the wash."

"_It was magenta_!" the two men suddenly shot back the same time. Levi shot a glare at Erwin, who cleared his throat and then faced everyone else.

"As many of you may have noticed during your first week here, fencing is a highly regarded sport here at Kyojin University. If you plan to join this club—or go even further and make it into the Recon Fencing Team, you're going to have to earn your place. Respect your blade, respect your teammates, and most of all, respect the art of fencing."

With that he bowed, and stepped back. An awkward silence filled the room until Levi finally decided to speak up.

"Newbies," he said curtly, "If you get one stain on _any_ of our uniforms, you will pay."

Mikasa crossed her arms. Eren stared.

"Um, okay," said Petra, "I know you're all eager to start fencing already, but we have to start with the basics: footwook!"

The rest of the meeting was spent learning the complex process of footwork. Petra had each new member pair up with one of the fencers they had seen earlier. To Mikasa's delight, she was paired up with Eld Gin, while to Eren's dismay, he was paired up with Levi.

Levi was a lot worse than Eren had imagined.

"Oi, point your foot more!" Levi ordered as Eren tripped once again and landed flat on his face. Everyone was attempting to cross the room using the correct footwork. Once a step was taken the wrong way, they had to start all over from the back of the room.

"And remember to attack with your arm as you lunge, not after you lunge," Levi reminded Eren as he grumpily walked back to the beginning, "You lack form."

Eren bit back a retort and began again, concentrating on the floor and making sure his footsteps were the perfect length apart. So far, only Mikasa had been successful in crossing the room in one turn. Eld was now teaching her different attack moves. He felt a pang of jealousy rise up within him—he really wanted to try sabre, as he knew Mikasa would, and he wouldn't be able to even reach that level if he failed at even the most basic of fencing techniques.

"And lunge," Levi said quietly. Eren took a step forward and lunged, extending his right arm at the same time as Levi had told him so. He remained in the lunged position as Levi examined his stance.

"Hmmm…not bad for a shitty brat. Let me just adjust a few things."

As Levi began touching Eren's arm to angle it correctly, Eren felt blood inexplicably rise to his face. Despite being a short rude pain in the ass…Levi's touch was gentle. He couldn't help but think how small Levi's hand was has the black-haired man rotated Eren's wrist so that his hand mimicked holding a blade.

When Levi bent down to start working on Eren's legs, he jolted, losing his balance and falling over once again.

Heat rising in his face again, this time from embarrassment, Eren gingerly rose to his feet. To his dismay, he saw that he was the only one still doing footwork on the floor—everyone else was now picking out their blades and fencing uniforms. Mikasa had obviously chosen sabre, along with Bertholdt; Marco, Connie, and Sasha had chosen épée; Ymir and Krista had chosen foil. Levi seemed to notice Eren's desperation and sighed.

"What blade were you thinking of, idiot?"

"Sabre," Eren mumbled. He saw Levi's eyebrows raise just a fraction—_were his eyelashes always that long?_

"If you think you even have a _chance_ at fencing sabre…" Levi began as Eren looked down the floor, all hope lost, "…You're going to have to improve your footwork."

_Huh?_

"You will start with foil, and take private footwork lessons from me. If you improve, I'll move you up to sabre."

Eren gaped, seeing Levi in a new light. That light was quickly diminished when Levi thumped him on the head.

"I don't care to know what you're gawking at. Go get a foil and fencing uniform and get your sorry ass back here."

Eren nodded and sauntered over to the area where the fencing gear was, definitely _not_ thinking about how Levi's fencing uniform was tight enough to accent _certain_ features.

Back in the present, Eren felt an all too familiar sensation burning below his abdomen.

_No. Way._

Eren looked down.

A hard-on greeted him in the form of tented pants. Before Eren had the chance to panic, Jean opened the door.

_This can't be happening._

The corners of Jean's mouth twitched.

_This semester is going to kill me._

* * *

I hope this chapter was worth the wait! As I mentioned in the last chapter, Lukas is an OC of mine-you're going to be seeing him a lot. I will do my best not to take forever to post the next chapter.

As always, reviews are greatly appreciated! :D

Until next time,

-Jay

P.S...I fence sabre ;)


	6. I Dream of Obsidian

Helloooo readers! I apologize for keeping you waiting. Here's the new chapter!

By the way, I suggest reading my oneshot called 'Sunspots' if you want to know what happened between Jean and Marco when Jean was caught hiding in the fencing closet (you'll see what I mean once you read this chapter). You can find it on my profile!

**Disclaimer: ** KnSnwot'nodI

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**I Dream of Obsidian**

Jean had laughed in Eren's face.

Looking back on it, he really should have been more mature about it instead of causing his fuming roommate to run out of the room whilst covering his crotch with both hands. But the deer-in-headlights look on Eren's face when Jean had walked in and seen Eren's little problem had made his day—no, his week. Even now as he was changing in the locker room for football practice, he could still see Eren's expression. He would definitely have to tell Marco about it sometime…

Marco.

Jean sighed ran a hand through his hair, putting down his shoulder pads. That boy was going to be the end of him, really. Ever since he had heard Marco playing music in his room Jean was having thoughts that he_ shouldn't be having. _Combined with the embarrassing incident last week in which Marco had discovered Jean hiding in the fencing uniform closet while he was getting undressed (it wasn't like that! He only wanted to see how many freckles Marco had!), Jean was also dealing with a few problems down in the nether regions himself. He could only thank the gods that Eren hadn't noticed Jean moaning Marco's name in his sleep (as far as he knew, anyway).

_It's only because he has black hair, it's only because he has black hair, just think of Mikasa…_This was the mantra Jean had been repeating to himself all week. There was no way Marco should make him feel like this...it was just because he had the same black hair that Mikasa had—Jean didn't know a lot of black-haired people anyway. And to hell with it, Marco did have a few feminine features about him, right?

But Marco wasn't Mikasa…Marco was different. Whenever Jean thought of Marco, he thought of _warmth._

Jean was pulled from his thoughts as a large hand clapped onto his shoulder. He froze, and turned around slowly to see Lukas behind him.

"You're late to practice, Jean," the blonde said, "And just because you're a sub doesn't mean you're allowed to skip out."

Jean clenched his mouth shut, holding back a retort. He couldn't forgive Lukas for making him a sub. Everybody knew of Jean's superior football-playing skills—heck, Jean had gotten into Kyojin University through a football scholarship, as his major was Sports Medicine-but Lukas, being the asshole he was, proudly proclaimed Jean's skills as utter shit during football tryouts and stuck him on the sidelines. Now Jean was required to play 10 games a semester to keep his scholarship. How was he supposed to play if he was stuck being a sub?!

The other players told Jean that Lukas was jealous and felt threatened, but nevertheless it was a major blow to Jean's pride.

"Oh, and, you might want to take care of that," Lukas continued with a frown, glancing down. Jean followed his gaze.

_You have GOT to be kidding me._

* * *

One month into the semester and Eren was already wishing it was December. While Armin and Mikasa breezed through their academics, Eren felt as if he was stuck in a permanent spiral of confusion—and it wasn't only his academics. Last week had been the start of labs for his Biology 101 class, which he had with Bertholdt. To Eren's utter shock, Hanji greeted him when he entered the lab.

"Hanji? What…um…do you…?" Eren sputtered.

"I'm the assistant for this class, silly!" Hanji exclaimed, rubbing Eren's head.

"But how? Aren't only graduate students allowed to help out with classes?"

At this Hanji scowled.

"Didn't you know, Eren?" Bertholdt piped, "Hanji is repeating her senior year! She was technically supposed to teach as a graduate student this year, but…"

"She burned down one of the labs, along with all of the professor's research," finished a silky female voice from right behind Eren, who let out a (very manly) squeal. He turned around and was met with a grin from a white-haired girl with glasses.

"You're not supposed to mention that, Rico!" Hanji snarled, pushing Eren out of the way to glare at Rico, who put up a hand and said, "Ah, ah, ah, Hanji. It's _Professor_ Rico now, remember?"

"In your dreams!"

"Says the girl who put flammable goggles next to the professor's bird cage!"

"How was I supposed to know to know that canary was fire-breathing?"

_Note to self: The science department can now make birds breathe fire_.

Hanji looked downright livid.

"Well, what are you waiting for!?" she suddenly snapped to Eren and Bertholdt, "Sit down!"

Eren and Bertholdt scrambled to their seats as Professor Rico walked to the front of the class, Hanji in tow. She quickly explained the instructions for the first lab and assigned lab partners—Eren and Bertholdt were matched up—with Hanji glaring daggers at her the whole time. Then Professor Rico left the students to do their labs while she and Hanji glared at each other once more.

"They're kind of like rivals," whispered Bertholdt as their staring match continued, "I heard that they were in the same grade last year, but Rico graduated and got into the graduate school while Hanji was forced to repeat." Bertholdt paused, taking a moment to mix together two powders in a beaker, then continued, "I don't think we're supposed to like Rico either, because she fences for the Garrison Fencing Team."

"Garrison?" Eren tilted his head as he emptied a beaker of water into a flask. Bertholdt nodded, adjusting his lab goggles.

"They're a combat fencing unit comprised of people who aspire to join the military and work with 3-D Maneuver Gear," explained Bertholdt, helping Eren weigh the flask they had just filled, "But they also participate in the usual competitions—they usually scout for new members, though. That's why Reiner and Annie-!" And suddenly Bertholdt clapped his hand to his mouth, dropping the flask. Eren yelped and scrambled to catch it before it spilled whatever they were mixing everywhere. Once his mini-heart attack subsided, Eren looked back to Bertholdt.

"Reiner and Annie what?" he asked.

Bertholdt shook his head, eyes wide. Eren frowned.

"Did Reiner tell you all of this?"

Bertholdt's face inexplicably turned pink, then paled when Professor Rico slammed her hands onto the desk Eren and Bertholdt were working on, causing both of them to start.

"GET BACK TO WORK!" she roared. While the two freshmen trembled in their seats, Professor Rico walked back to Hanji saying, "I could get used to doing that."

After class, Eren immediately headed for the fitness center—today was supposed to be his first footwork lesson with Levi. Eren had to admit, he was more than a little bit nervous. After what had happened last time…

_No!_ Eren's inner conscience reminded him, _You were just having a stressful day that time. Your body overreacted. Plus, if you think about it, Levi kind of resembles Mikasa._

_Wait, what? But she's my sister!_

_Listen, stupid. You're mixing up your feelings for her with Levi. They both have black hair, right? They're both strong…determined…plus, Levi looks kind of girly if you ask me._

_But I'm you._

_Shut up, shitty brat._

_Great, _Eren thought, approaching the door to the fencing room, _Now my conscience sounds like him too._

"You push yourself too hard, you know," a soft voice from inside the fencing room said. Eren halted, his hand on the doorknob. There was no window on the door so he pressed his face against the crack adjacent to the wall to listen.

"I know you don't care but…I worry about you sometimes, "the voice continued, "You can't do everything in the world, Levi…"

_Levi?_

"I just wish you could hear me now…"

Curiosity getting the better of him, Eren slowly opened the door. However, he froze in his tracks, heart leaping into his throat as he viewed the scene in front of him.

Erwin was sitting in the middle of the floor in his fencing uniform. On his lap lay Levi's head, face drowned in sleep. Erwin was slowly running his fingers through the captain's hair, his expression one of pure endearment. Not wanting to disturb the intimate scene, Eren backed away and closed the door as quietly as he could.

He practically ran to the locker room. Once inside and sure that he was alone, he leaned against the wall for support, heart pounding and thoughts spinning.

_Shit shit shit shit…I wasn't supposed to see that._

He put a hand to his chest, feeling his rapid heartbeat. Levi had looked so defenseless, so utterly peaceful, and the way Erwin was looking down at him…it was the purest form of love Eren had encountered in a long time.

_You wish you could have that with Mikasa, don't you…_

_It's not like that…Mikasa is different; her circumstances are different._

_But don't you want that sort of relationship with her? You care for her, don't you?_

"But I could never think of her in that way," Eren said softly, closing his eyes. The realization was hard enough. Sure, he had loved Mikasa unconditionally as a child when his family had first taken her in—how could he not? But they were only 9 at the time, and no need to categorize the love they had for each other. Why did it suddenly have to be so complicated now?

_Bzzt!_

_Hey brat, you're 3 minutes late. You owe me coffee. –Levi_

Eren had to slam his foot against the wall to prevent himself from sliding down the wall.

_How did he…wasn't he…_

His hands shook as he quickly put on his uniform. Helmet in hand, he sauntered back over to the fencing studio. Then, taking a deep breath, he opened the door once again. To his surprise, Levi was standing there—alone—all suited up and wide awake. His right foot was tapping impatiently against the ground.

"What took you so long?" the captain huffed.

"I-you—uh…how did you get my phone number?" the freshman quipped back.

"Petra collected everyone's contact data when you first signed up for the club," Levi answered rolling his eyes, "Or were you too busy staring at the ceiling like an idiot?"

"That's not-!" Eren started but stopped when Levi lifted his blade to rest the tip on Eren's shoulder where a minuscule speck of dirt stood out from the white uniform.

"Dirty," he murmured, eyes scrutinizing the freshman, "Over here too—" at this he moved the blade to rest on Eren's arm, "And here." Finally, in the center of his chest. Suddenly Levi pulled back his blade and lunged forward. Eren, not expecting this move at all, yelped and fell backwards, landing on his back. He hissed in pain, moving to get up, but felt something pressing him down.

Levi was standing over him, blade tip on his chest once more.

"I said not get the uniforms dirty," Levi said in a low voice, eyes wide and unblinking, "Didn't you hear me on the first day? Idiot."

He glared down at Eren.

"You didn't even retreat correctly. Didn't we already go over the footwork?"

Stunned silence from the freshman.

Levi suddenly groaned as if he were in pain, putting his other hand to his face. He seemed to slump slightly where he stood.

"L-Levi?" Eren stuttered from the floor, "Are you oka—"

_"Don't talk,_" the captain hissed, putting pressure on the blade for emphasis. After a moment, Levi sighed, finally lifting his blade.

"You're giving me a headache, brat," Levi mumbled, helping Eren to his feet.

"I'm sorry!" Eren said, still panicked, "I'll work hard, I promise."

"You'd better," Levi warned. "Let's start from the basic exercises, then…"

The next half hour was spent going over the basics. Levi had Eren assume the proper fencing pose, making little reminders here and there about remembering to keep the knees bent and the shoulders relaxed. Then they started working on footwork. Levi had Eren copy his movements, then had him execute them on his own.

"Good, good," Levi said as Eren traversed the length of the room using the techniques Levi had taught them, "Don't forget to keep your arm stiff—pretend that you're holding the foil!"

Eren nodded, concentrating on keeping his feet moving in a straight line. When he returned to where he started, Levi had in stand in place once more and made some slight adjustments. Once again, Eren was forced to go through the agony of feeling Levi's hands on his arms and legs.

"What's with you? You're shaking," Levi noted as he pulled Eren's arm out slightly.

"It's nothing…just a little tired," Eren gasped, feeling a bead of sweat making its way down the side of his neck. Now that Levi was up close, Eren could map out every little detail of his face—it was practically flawless, not a blemish to be found. And to his surprise, he found that his eyes weren't dark grey like Mikasa's—if you looked hard enough, they were a startling shade of blue. If Eren looked at the right angle, they could even gleam—_you're going a little too far, Eren._

"Okay, we're going to try something else," Levi said, stepping back and walking to the fencing closet, "Don't move."

So Eren was forced to ignore his screaming knees and watch Levi pull out two cardboard rods.

"These are going to be our pretend foils," Levi explained, tossing one to Eren, "I'm going to stand opposite to you, as if we're having a match. Don't lunge or anything, just try to make sure I don't land any touches on you."

Eren nodded. Levi then faced Eren and assumed position.

What followed almost seemed like a dance.

Levi began to approach Eren, his steps light and perfectly placed. Eren began to back up, trying to keep track of what direction he feet were facing. Levi began to pick up the pace, approaching Eren quickly as the other fought to keep his movements in control and catch up to speed. Then the captain quickly retreated, his eyes locked with Eren's. Eren gasped and began to advance forward, finally starting to get in the groove of the movements. They continued like this for several minutes, never breaking eye contact, trapped in a linear dance. Finally, Levi lunged forward unexpectedly, and for a moment, Eren could only see those striking blue eyes and nothing else Then it was over as Eren tripped over his feet, landing on his butt once again and dropping his pretend foil. Unfortunately, Levi didn't seem to calculate just how badly Eren would stumble, and landed on top of him.

"Oof!" Eren gasped as his body supported the full weight of the captain—he was surprisingly heavy given his slim figure. He twitched, face rapidly heating up when Levi exhaled slowly into his neck before gingerly pushing himself up, hands on Eren's chest.

For a split second, the two locked eyes again. Eren lay there transfixed, unable to tear his gaze away from Levi's piercing blue eyes. Levi seemed to be shocked himself as he hastily scrambled—yes, _scrambled_ to get himself off of the freshman.

"Not…not bad," Levi said, clearing his throat as Eren slowly lifted himself to his feet. Eren looked down at the captain and his breath momentarily stopped. Levi looked perfect—his hair was ever-so-slightly messed up from his movements, his forehead and tips of his hair spotted with little droplets of sweat. His eyes had lit up with something Eren couldn't put his finger on, but it made Levi look like a completely different person.

"Oi, you're gawking again," Levi snapped, his stony façade quickly snapping back into place. Eren shook his head and picked up his pretend foil, which he handed to the captain.

"We'll start with these next week," Levi said, "Now come with me. You're buying me coffee."

* * *

_Are you still awake? –Marco_

Yeah. Studying for an anatomy quiz –Jean

_Sounds hard. What's your major again? _

Sports Medicine

_Oh yea. Am I bothering you? _

_Jean? _

No you're fine

_Oh good lol Can I tell you something? _

Gimme a min

Okay

Hello

Helllllooooo

_Never mind, ill tell u l8tr sorry g2gbye_

Marco shoved the phone underneath his pillow, heart pounding. He had almost done it—he had almost told Jean everything.

So what was stopping him?

He groaned, rubbing his face with his hands. Surely Jean would know something was up now—Marco never used text language unless he was in a hurry. Gosh, why did he always have to chicken out on these things?!

"Hey Marco, are you okay?" called Armin's sleepy voice from underneath him. Marco leaned over the edge of the bunk bed to see his roommate opening one eye to look at him.

"I'm fine Armin. Sorry for worrying you!" Marco answered, putting on a smile. Armin nodded, still bleary, and went back to sleep. Marco then plopped back down onto his pillow, ignoring the vibrations of however many texts Jean was sending him. He blushed, remembering the feel of Jean's hands on his arms and back when he counted his freckles a few weeks before.

But then he remembered Lukas, and how he had been treated.

_I can't tell him._

Jean would get hurt, wouldn't he? Especially if he was on the football team!

_But I want to so badly._

Marco shut his eyes, fighting back tears and trying to block out the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, Jean was frantically sending text after text asking if Marco was okay, his anatomy textbook and notes abandoned on the floor.

* * *

Hope you guys enjoyed it! Things will pick up in the next chapter. :3

Until next time,

-Jay


	7. Jitters

Phew, I've been writing so much this week! ^^; I hope you enjoy this new chapter. I'm trying to update more and more as I embark on the perilous quest to write 50,000 for NaNoWriMo!

For those of you who don't know, I decided to turn my JeanxMarco oneshot 'Sunspots' into a collection of oneshots between JeanxMarco and ErenxLevi. The title is called 'Inexplicably You.' Please check it out of you have a chance! :) My plan is to alternate updating that fanfiction and this one each week.

Also, a big shout out to my new friend youngearlofphantomhive! Thank you for all of the support, and here is the scene you wanted as promised!

Lastly, please take a look and vote on the poll I posted (it's on my profile). It's about SnK pairings/favourite shippings.

Without further ado, I present to you all chapter 7!

**Disclaimer: I do not own these beautiful fictional men**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Jitters**

September transitioned into October before any of the freshmen of Kyojin University could blink. Classes suddenly became exponentially more challenging, deadlines for papers loomed closer and closer, and any hopes of maintaining a regular sleeping pattern were lost.

And of course: October brought the start of midterms.

Going out on the weekends turned into pulling all-nighters for Monday exams; a bagel and omelette for the morning were turned into two cups of coffee for the entire day; spending money on hanging out at the mall turned into spending money for textbooks that were at first thought to be unnecessary for the semester (but in reality were needed the whole time).

But one thing was keeping the university students sane—one thing that could save them from the utter madness of being a full-time college student.

And that was the start of the football season.

Yes, football was the sport that brought the students, whether undergraduate or doctoral, international or local, doctor or artist, all to one stadium where their only job was to scream at the top of their lungs to support their team (or hurl insults at the opposing team; either was acceptable). Football was where the Titans took to the field and crushed their enemies—after all, the university was named after the species that had almost crushed humanity hundreds of years ago. Football was when the jocks who were failing their math classes turned into superstars on the field, the games being broadcast to every home in the country.

And football was how Marco found himself nearly crushed within a horde of mostly drunk crazy college students as he tried to make his way towards the locker room of the university football stadium to apologize to Jean.

For the last two weeks, Marco had been completely avoiding Jean after he had woken up and seen 46 unopened texts from him asking if he was okay. Marco had slapped himself for not being brave to text back that stressful night, and was ridden with guilt in the days following the incident. Unfortunately, he didn't have to try very hard to avoid Jean—they were already in completely different major programs, so they didn't have any classes together to being with. Days quickly turned into weeks, leaving Marco stuck in a miserable slump after each day of not talking to Jean while trying to muster up the courage to approach the football player and apologize, but backing out at the last minute.

However, he had timidly approached Eren a few days before, asking how Jean was doing. Eren seemed confused at first but didn't pry, informing Marco that Jean was either gone for football practice, or up all night studying for midterms.

"But it seems like something else is bothering him," Eren mentioned right before Marco gave up hope, "I mean, he just seems more on edge than usual. Did something happen?"

Marco had stammered a quick response before dashing away. He _had_ worried Jean! There was no way he couldn't apologize now—he didn't want Jean to be stressed before the big game just because of him!

Gasping, Marco finally escaped the crowd and entered the locker room. Maneuvering around a big burly football player, he scanned the room as quickly as he could—he definitely wasn't allowed to be in here, but he had to apologize before the kickoff. He nearly cried in relief when he found Jean sitting on a bench near the back, all suited up in his football uniform.

Marco took a deep breath, heart racing.

"J-Jean?"

No answer. Jean was staring at the floor.

"Jean?"

Again, no response. Was Jean ignoring him?

No. He had to keep trying.

"Jean?" he asked one more time, this time placing a hand on the football player's shoulder. Jean started, eyes widening as he faced his attacker.

"Marco!?" Jean spluttered, incredulous, "I haven't seen you in weeks! What are you doing here?"

_He wasn't ignoring me! _Marco cried internally, and continued, "I just…I wanted to…"

Oh, no. He could feel an all-too familiar pressure building up behind his eyes.

_I have to do this!_

"I wanted to say I'm sorry!" he finally burst out, clenching his eyes shut. And then the words spilled from his lips before he could control himself: "I am so sorry Jean I should have texted you back but I was just worried and stressed out and I just wasn't ready to tell you I was okay the whole time I should have told you I am so sorry for avoiding you Ididn'tmeantooIwasjusttoomuchofoacowardtoapologize andnowyou'reabouttoplayand-!"

"Marco!" Jean exclaimed, standing up and putting his hands on the taller one's shoulders, "You don't have to apologize for anything."

"What?" Marco responded, slightly out of breath from his rant.

Jean sighed, releasing one hand from the other's shoulder to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Marco, I admit you had me worried for a while when you started avoiding me. But if this was eating at you the whole time…it's my fault for sounding so panicked over the phone; I just overreacted. As long as you're okay, there's nothing else to talk about. And I'm not even playing the game anyway, as far as I know."

"What do you mean? You're the best football player I know!" Marco said, eyebrows furrowing, "You're supposed to be on TV and everything!"

"Yeah, but our stupid captain thinks I'm shit, apparently," Jean muttered, clenching his jaw, "He's not letting me play unless someone gets seriously hurt." Jean wasn't showing it, but Marco could see clearly just how upset this was making him. He wasn't even allowed to play the game that got him into college in the first place!

"And I'm starting to think that maybe he's right," Jean continued, his tone growing darker, "I haven't played as well I used to in high school, and everyone treats me like I'm some dumb jock. I'm not like the other guys…" _In more ways than one, _Jean thought as he trailed off, before taking another breath.

"Maybe I'm not cut out for sports after all.' There, he said it: the one thing that had been eating him up since the end of high school. He lowered his gaze to the floor. "I'm just not strong enough to admit it to myself."

Marco gently removed Jean's hand from his shoulder, raising the shorter man's chin to look him straight in the eye.

"That's bullshit," he said sternly. Jean gaped—that was the first time he had ever heard Marco curse.

"M-Marco…"

"You're not worthless, first of all," Marco lectured, never breaking eye contact, "And you're more intelligent than you give yourself credit for. Eren told me that you've been studying like crazy for midterms. And you might not be the best football player on the field, but you were damn good enough to get into this school. Anyone who tells you otherwise needs to get their head checked."

Marco smiled warmly down at Jean, who seemed to be in awe.

"You don't have to be strong to know what's right," Marco finished, "And I'd take a smart person over a strong person any day."

Without thinking he leaned down and pressed a light kiss to Jean's cheek. Jean froze, blood rushing to his face.

When he felt Jean tense up, Marco crashed back into reality, wrenching himself away from Jean and backing away slowly.

"Oh my gosh…I'm so…I'm sorry Jean," he rasped, throat as dry as sandpaper, "I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking."

"That's…that's okay," Jean said numbly, eyes wide. The locker room had emptied a long time ago. In the distance the screams of football fans could be heard, followed by the announcement of the kickoff from a megaphone. The game had started.

"Um…I'd better go…I don't want to get caught being the locker room without permission, you know?" Marco laughed awkwardly, trying to ignore the fact that his voice had risen several octaves, "I'll—I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay," Jean said, still in shock as Marco quickly fled from the room.

What both freshmen had failed to notice was the person who had watched the whole scene from behind one of the lockers. Lips cracked open in a malicious grin.

_Perfect._

* * *

Midterms were nothing short of a trip to hell and back for Eren. He thought he had been bad at math, but English was something else. Maybe it was because he had never had good English teachers in high school-but whatever it was, whenever Eren was presented with the task of writing an essay his mind went blank and strange words somehow appeared on the paper, just like they were right now.

He sighed, looking gloomily at the prompt. He had decided to lock himself up in the library in order to finish a 10 page paper that was due in two days—worst mistake of his life.

_Analyze the reading from the textbook about the Great Titan Wars, and take a stance on the military's decision to capture and keep hidden the two Abberant Tit—_

Eren slammed his computer shut, unable to concentrate anymore. He glanced at his watch—4:00. The fencing studio should still be open. Even though it wasn't time for his footwork lesson with Levi, he could still warm up beforehand.

New determination fueling his resolve, Eren left the library and headed towards the fitness center. If he wasn't able to focus on an essay, maybe he could at least impress Levi with all of the practicing he had been doing over the past week. In his lessons Levi had been practicing sparring with him more often, so they were now combining footwork with offensive and defensive moves. In regular fencing club the others had advanced to mini-spars with the actual blades (Mikasa had scored 3 points in a row against Bertholdt, who was surprisingly an excellent fencer), but Levi still refused to let Eren spar with anyone until his footwork was perfect.

Eren had grown increasingly curious about the captain of the fencing team. Ever since he had walked in on Erwin talking to Levi as the other slept, Eren couldn't help but wonder about their relationship in general. What exactly was Levi to Erwin?

(and why did he suddenly feel so jealous?)

Eren asked Hanji about the two the other day. After his lab (in which he accidentally created a small explosion in his test tube, earning a scolding from Professor Rico and thunderous applause from Hanji), he had nervously approached the senior who was cleaning lab materials that had been used during the class.

"What's up Eren?" Hanji asked when she noticed him, then held in a snort of laughter and grinned when she saw Professor Rico trip over a ruler that was (conveniently) placed right in her path.

"Hanji…do you mind if I ask you something about Le—the captain?"

"Oooooh, want to get the inside scoop on Levi do you?" Hanji had responded, her eyes lighting up, "Then ask away! I know all of his deepest darkest secrets, oh yes, he made me swear not to tell anyone but I'll make an exception for you!"

"Ah…no, that's okay," Eren responded, sweat-dropping, "I was just wondering if you could tell me about him and Professor Erwin."

Hanji stilled, her hands halting in the middle of cleaning a glass beaker.

"What do you mean, Eren?" the senior asked, lowering her head so light from the window reflected off of her glasses, hiding her expression.

"I don't…I don't know really how put it…are they…together?"

Hanji sighed, setting down the beaker and raising her head to look at Eren. Gone was the glint in her eyes and her usual smile, leaving behind a small frown and stern expression.

"Oh, Eren…I could tell you anything else, I could, but I can't tell you about that," Hanji said seriously, "Believe me, I wish I could tell you, but it's just not my place to reveal things that are better left locked away."

_Why did she sound so sad?_

"I understand," Eren said, slumping, "I'm sorry for prying."

"It's no problem at all!" Hanji said worriedly, waving her hands, "It's okay to be curious. But please don't ask me again…it's too much of a personal matter for both of them. And let's keep this conversation between just the two of us, okay?"

When Eren nodded, Hanji's attitude made a complete 180.

"Well goodie!" the biology major exclaimed, grin lighting up her face once more, "Then can I ask you a question in return? Would you be willing to be a willing participant in an experiment I'm conducting?"

At that point Eren had quickly excused himself from the lab, leaving before he was turned into a test subject, but Hanji's words stuck in his head for the next few days. What was so bad or embarrassing that even Hanji wouldn't reveal it? It was just all too confusing.

Pushing these thoughts out of his head, Eren entered the fitness center and immediately headed towards the lockers to get changed into his fencing gear. Once he opened the door to the locker room, though, he was nearly decapitated by a fencing glove flying towards his face. He quickly ducked, the glove narrowly missing him, and dove behind the nearest locker.

When nobody came to attack him, Eren cautiously peeked around the corner. To his surprise again, Levi and Erwin stood in the center of the room, Erwin's back facing the freshman and Levi standing across from the blonde. It looked like Levi had been the one who had thrown the glove—his expression showed nothing but barely-controlled anger, as indicated by the shaking of his fists. Eren quietly maneuvered himself so that he was hidden from the two, but listened from behind the locker. The two were silent for a moment—to Eren's relief, neither of them had noticed him.

"Levi…I can't do this anymore," Erwin said, finally breaking the silence—from what Eren could hear, Erwin was trying his best to keep his voice even. Across the blonde, Levi had frozen, eyes now trained on the ground so that his hair hid his expression. He didn't utter a word. Erwin fidgeted, but continued.

"This whole business with your past…and what more with what Reiner and Annie have been doing…you know it's dangerous if you're seen with me…especially with all that's been going on recently. I can't risk you getting hurt anymore."

Silence.

"What I'm saying is that…we need to end this…it's for your protection."

"You're lying," Levi hissed, finally raising his head. Surprisingly, his trade-mark glare had snapped back into place—but it was breaking. Even Eren could see the slight trembling of his eyebrows. Erwin seemed to notice it too, as he hastily tried to comfort the other by placing his hands on his shoulders.

"Don't touch me!" Levi hissed, shoving Erwin with both hands. He was trembling now, jaw clenched as he tried to keep his emotions in check. Erwin seemed to droop where he stood, but said nothing.

"We've run into these problems before, and you've always stuck by my side. I've stuck by yours too! And you of all people should know that I'm not the person I was before—I can protect myself. No matter what the risk was, you were always willing to put up with it, and things turned out fine. This is different…it's someone else, isn't it?" Levi asked meekly. Eren's heart stopped—he had never heard the captain's voice sound so small before. Erwin nodded and at that moment, Levi seemed to break. It wasn't obvious, like someone suddenly falling to the ground and wailing their eyes out, or getting angry and throwing a tantrum. No, it had looked as if something had snapped within Levi, leaving him devoid of the strong front he usually put up. But the fight hadn't completely left him, as indicated by his trembling jaw.

"Who is it?"

"That's not important."

"You had better fucking tell me!" Now his hands were shaking. Erwin sighed in defeat.

"It's Petra," he said quietly. Eren had to clap a hand to his mouth to prevent the sound of shock that nearly escaped him. Levi looked incredulous.

"I'm sorry," Erwin finished before Levi had a chance to open his mouth, and turned on his heel to walk away. Eren flattened himself against the locker as the blonde passed him—luckily he hadn't been noticed. He waited for the blonde's footsteps to fade before he dared to look around the corner again just in time to see Levi lose control.

_"Damn him!"_ the raven-haired man exploded, kicking the object nearest to him—which happened to be a concrete wall. His eyes widened, a small sound of pain escaping him as he promptly collapsed onto the ground.

"Levi!" Eren, not being able to stand anymore, ran towards the captain who was clutching his leg.

"What are you _doing_ here, brat?" the other asked sharply, struggling to regain his composure. Eren didn't respond, only helping the captain sit up. Levi winced as his leg was shifted in the process, breaking the mask.

"We need to get you to the infirmary," Eren said quickly in order to avoid talking about the events had just transpired, "Here, put your arm—"

"What did you hear?" Levi asked quietly, slapping away Eren's hand.

"N-nothing…"

_"Bullshit_. Answer me before I use my other foot: What. Did. You. Hear."

Eren sighed, finally giving in.

"Enough," he simply said. Levi groaned and hung his head.

"Forget what you heard," he said, "It was nothing."

At this, Eren's anger flared.

"You can't just ignore what just happened!" he burst out, "He obviously hurt you! You can't tell me you didn't feel _something!"_

"It doesn't matter what I feel!" Levi snapped back, glaring at Eren, "And it's none of your business, shitty brat!"

"I'm _making_ it my business whether you like it or not!" Eren shouted, finally past his breaking point and throwing away all hopes of calming down. Below him Levi's eyes had widened considerably.

"Levi…what exactly was Erwin to you?" Eren asked in a deep tone, his voice shaking, "He was more than a friend, right? Was he your boy—!"

"DON'T say it," the other hissed. Levi's eyes were clenched shut, his jaw trembling. Eren breathed out slowly, using the rest of his strength to heave Levi up and wrap an arm around the captain to support his weight on his shoulder. Surprisingly, Levi didn't try to escape from his hold, and instead adjusted his position so that he could lean on Eren more freely. Even so, he was still in a lot of pain, indicated by the sweat that had just broken out on his forehead.

"What's the best way to get to the infirmary from here?" Eren asked gently, fully aware that standing was putting more pressure and pain on the captain than what Levi was showing.

"Not…not going there," Levi rasped as he clutched tightly onto Eren, fingernails sinking into his shoulder as they both started walking towards the door.

"What do you mean? Of course you have to go there!"

"I said no."

"Why?"

Eren mentally slapped himself when Levi didn't respond, remembering what Hanji had said. There were obviously some things that Levi wanted to keep hidden beside his relationship with Erwin.

"Forget it," Eren said sternly, noticing Levi relax minutely in his grip, "I think Mikasa might be able to help. She used to patch me up all the time."

"Heh…I'm not so sure she'll be willing to help me," Levi chuckled darkly, causing Eren's eyebrows to raise—_since when does Levi laugh?_ "We're not exactly on the best of terms since we first met."

"Oh come now," Eren chided as the two exited the fitness center, "It can't be that bad."

"She thought she could win in a fight against me."

"Levi, _don't _tell me you beat her. I'll drop you."

"I'm not saying anything, idiot," Levi said slyly, telling Eren to slow down so he could limp without tripping, "Now take me over there, to the left by the Karanese building. We can take the bus to my apartment."

Eren nodded, and the two took a moment to rest once they reached the building. An awkward silence passed as they both waited for the bus, a slight breeze picking up and lifting a spiral of red and golden autumn leaves into the air.

"Hey, Eren?" Levi asked quietly, leaning on Eren once more as the bus approached them.

"What?"

"Don't ever speak of this to anyone." His head was hung low again, dark obsidian locks hiding his expression. Eren couldn't help but notice the slight tremor in his voice.

"Don't worry," Eren mumbled in return once the doors opened. He helped Levi up the steps. "Some things are better left locked away for a while, right?"

He didn't miss the small upturn of Levi's lips as the bus doors closed behind them.

* * *

Hope you all enjoyed! Please keep reviewing, the support means so much to me! :)

Until next time,

-Jay


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